Illegal Immigration from Mexico to the United States - Essay Example

Immigration Laws: They come to America         Illegal immigration from Mexico to the United s is still a major area of concern. Economic turmoil of the nation is one of the main reasons why every year a huge number of Mexican people shift from their native place to the United States in search of better livelihood or better living condition. Since last two decades, the government of the United States has adopted several legislative and administrative enforcement methods that are aimed at reducing the rate of immigration from Mexico but none of those have actually proved to be effective. Consequently, the whole situation becomes even worse as we see every year quite a few number of Mexican people are killed due to some reasons or the women are sexually abused during their attempt to cross the US borders. According to 2005 statistics from the United States border control department, “…from January to the end of September … 464 people died while illegally attempting to cross the border between Mexico and the United States. That is an increase of 43 percent from the previous year.” (“Mexico Urges U.S. to Improve Cross-Border Security”, 23rd Nov, 2005, 1) Pondering over such a sensitive issue, the Mexican government has also urged the United States government to take adequate initiative to introduce changes in the existing immigration law system so that “lives of hundreds of people who are dying in their attempt to cross into the United States” can be saved. (“Mexico Urges U.S. to Improve Cross-Border Security, 23rd Nov, 2005, 1) Thus, reflecting over the current situation we see that Illegal immigrants cross our borders; the women suffer and will not go to the Embassy for a Visa so it is time to face political reality.       On the other hand, however, US is viewing such immigration as a serious concern for the national security and United States border security department is observing such violation of border regulation as one of the major reasons for intrusion of both anti-socials and criminals, “Flagrant violation of our borders undercuts the rule of law, undermines our security and imposes special economic strains on our border communities. When we don’t control our borders, we also risk the entry of terrorists or criminals who want to do us harm.” (“Mexico Urges U.S. to Improve Cross-Border Security, 23rd Nov, 2005, 2) The situation for Mexican people, seeking permission to migrate in the United States, becomes even worse due to negligence of the U.S. embassy. It is responsibility of the government that laborers, who have been given the permission to come in the United States, do not overstay. However, as the government has not taken help of the available technological advancement, almost 40 percent of the Mexican workers have entered America, but did not return, though tenure of their Visa expired. (Keene, November 2005, 3) It is clear from such observation that though there is not sufficient initiative from the United States governance to sort out a solution to the migration problem but it is also not interested to undertake any such step that would give a hint about the fact that immigration law has been modified or relaxed. Political scientists, on the other hand, have found elements of tension between both the nations that have actually led the United States to hold such a stubborn standpoint regarding modification of existing immigration law. They have pointed out that as Mexico declined the proposal of the United States to support the Gulf War II, the later took the position that it would not support any of Mexico’s proposals. It has also been regarded by the political scholars that such stubbornness is one of the main reasons to develop antagonistic mentality among residents of New Mexico and Arizona. Formation of “Minutemen militia groups” is a result of such antagonism against policies of the Federal government. Though rigidity of the United States migration policy is one of the major reasons for suffering of people who are waiting to cross the border, women, are especially the subjects of greatest torment. According to a BusinessWeek report, in the year 2005 total 435,589 people waited to get inside the United States territory among which a substantial part comprised of women. (“Whipsawed On the Border”, 10th Oct, 2005) Apart from natural hostility, “bad guys” of the border regions are also major reason of concern as far as security of women are concerned. Generally the border regions are prone to vehicle hijacking and criminals mainly use these stolen vehicles for trafficking of women and drugs. Women, waiting at the border regions for their access into the Unites States, are major resources to such people who smuggle them out for commercial reasons. Despite all these dangers Mexican women are ready to receive an access to the United States and the main reason behind such desperateness is to secure a better lifestyle. However, current situation proves to be even more hostile for the Mexican woman. Aftermath 9/11 attack, U.S provision to grant visa has been even more strict and “Such restrictions are likely to be a great inconvenience -- or worse -- to students accepted to study at U.S. universities or workers hired for jobs in the country, especially to those hired for temporary or seasonal jobs.” (Tully, n.d) Regarding such rigidity on issuing visas, scholars like Cesar Orantes have clearly opined that “while the United States is trying to keep itself free of terrorists from the Middle East and Asia, it is having the unintended effect of making it difficult for immigrants from Latin American countries to enter -- or stay -- in order to work.” (Tully, n.d.) Truth behind such observation immediately becomes clear the moment we look at the condition of Mexican women in their desperate attempt to cross the borders. As they are left with no other option that to earn their livelihood from the American territory, they simply cannot afford to wait for the formalities to be fulfilled regarding use of visas. Thus, in most of the cases they find out other alternatives, among which attempt to cross the border illegally occupies a major proportion.       Lack of proper migration policy is not only giving birth to agitation among those people, who are residing in border areas only but the internal U.S. scenario is equally affected. As there is a common conception among general U.S. civilians that people, who have migrated from Mexico, are generally of criminal mentality, such ideas have also been fuelled by legislatures, implicitly. According to available statistical report from the United Stated Census Bureau, almost eleven million migrants, without sufficient legal documents, are residing in the United States. Due to the common perception they are often identified and addressed as criminals. Additionally, there has also been continuous attempt of deportation from the United States. However, though U.S. society and the governance maintain a distance from the Hispanics, they are no less devoted towards the nation and to express this feeling “hundreds of thousands of immigrants in more than 100 American cities marched for a chance to work hard and not to be deported.” (“Not Criminal, just hopeful”, 1st Aug, 2009, 1) People like Jorge Rodriguez have voiced desire of such a huge population that they do not want to be identified as criminals. All they want is a chance to live with proper social dignity and earn their livelihood in the United States itself. (“Not Criminal, just hopeful”, 8th Jan, 2009, 2) Unfortunately, in return of such humble request all they have received is uncertainty from the governance and the Sensenbrenner Bill that precisely says, “You’re all criminals and we want you to each other tell on each other and deport each other.” (“Not Criminal, just hopeful”, 1st Aug, 2009, 2)       Clearly, such situation does not provide any ray of hope to the Hispanics who are residing within the U.S. without legal authenticity. Such situation also suggests that Mexicans, who are living within the United States, will be under continuous threat of being deported and among those, who are attempting to cross the borders, many of them will give up their lives. However, if the United States government could have exhibited a more flexible approach regarding the issues related to immigration that would have surely led the nation to a much better condition both from social and economic perspective. Receiving sufficient amount of workforce is a great challenge for the United States. With the course of time this issue is gradually taking shape of a crisis and the government does not have any possible solutions in hand that could have filled up the lacuna. Though some legislatures have opined that potential immigrants can prove to be a great source in this respect, “Some lawmakers and looking to the Immigration pipeline as one means to raise staffing levels,” (Herbest, 29th Aug, 2009, 1) the current situation is not giving us any single ray of hope.       It is quite astonishing to see that the U.S. government, despite making an attempt to develop the situation regarding immigration problem, is still clinging to the old position of showing an uncompromising attitude towards the issue of illegal immigration. However, the U.S. governance is failing to understand that if they try to prevent immigration from one angle, other avenues will automatically open. Thus, it will be a prudent action to make the existing policies regarding immigration law more flexible. In this context we can refer to the immigration problem that occurred during the 80s. During that time legislatures, instead of taking adequate actions against immigrants actually did let the situation grow, “…Congress gutted the sanctions at the behest of employers who wanted to keep hiring illegals….” (Keene, November 2005, 3) On the other hand pondering over the modern situation it seems that “today’s politicians are acting as if none of this happened and are preparing to repeat the mistakes of the 1980s.” (Keene, November 2005, 3) What actually is required in the existing situation is to identify the real “bad guys” or miscreants on one hand and on the other the U.S. government is required to relax their policies regarding immigration so that potential work force from Mexico can be used for development of the national economy. In this context, Marisa Trevino has observed, “There’s no denying our fear of terrorists. What’s not clear is why we should fear most of the illegal immigrants whose sole intent is to improve their quality of life.” (Trevino, 2nd Aug, 2009, 1) Prudent actions from the government will not only help those people to improve their quality of life but also will contribute substantially to the development of the United States as a whole.   References 1. Herbst, M., (20th Aug, 2009), “Immigration: More Foreign Nurses Needed?”, (EBSCO) 2. Keene, D.A., (November, 2005), “The Bubbling Pot”, (EBSCO) 3. “Mexico Urges U.S. to Improve Cross-Border Security”(23rd November, 2005), (EBSCO) 4. “Not criminal, just hopeful” (1st Aug, 2009), (EBSCO) 5. Trevino, M., (2nd Aug, 2009), “Border Control Aims at wrong bad guys”, (EBSCO) 6. Tully, A.F., (n.d.), “Stricter Visa Rules May Prove Self-Defeating”, available at: http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/papers/vp01.cfm?outfit=pmt&folder=891&paper=893, accessed on: 18th September, 2009 7. “Whipsawed On The Border”, BusinessWeek, (10th Oct, 2005), available at: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_41/b3954095.htm, accessed on: 18th September, 2009 Read More

Though rigidity of the United States migration policy is one of the major reasons for the suffering of people who are waiting to cross the border, women, are especially the subjects of greatest torment. According to a BusinessWeek report, in the year 2005 total of 435,589 people waited to get inside the United States territory among which a substantial part comprised of women. (“Whipsawed On the Border”, 10th Oct 2005) Apart from natural hostility, “bad guys” of the border regions are also a major reason of concern as far as the security of women is concerned. Generally, the border regions are prone to vehicle hijacking and criminals mainly use these stolen vehicles for the trafficking of women and drugs. Women, waiting at the border regions for their access into the United States, are major resources to such people who smuggle them out for commercial reasons. Despite all these dangers, Mexican women are ready to receive access to the United States and the main reason behind such desperateness is to secure a better lifestyle. However, the current situation proves to be even more hostile for the Mexican woman. Aftermath 9/11 attack, U.S provision to grant visa has been even more strict, and “Such restrictions are likely to be a great inconvenience -- or worse -- to students accepted to study at U.S. universities or workers hired for jobs in the country, especially to those hired for temporary or seasonal jobs.” (Tully, n.d) Regarding such rigidity on issuing visas, scholars like Cesar Orantes have clearly opined that “while the United States is trying to keep itself free of terrorists from the Middle East and Asia, it is having the unintended effect of making it difficult for immigrants from Latin American countries to enter -- or stay -- in order to work.” (Tully, n.d.) The truth behind such observation immediately becomes clear the moment we look at the condition of Mexican women in their desperate attempt to cross the borders. As they are left with no other option than to earn their livelihood from the American territory, they simply cannot afford to wait for the formalities to be fulfilled regarding the use of visas. Thus, in most of the cases, they find out other alternatives, among which attempt to cross the border illegally occupies a major proportion.

      Lack of proper migration policy is not only giving birth to agitation among those people, who are residing in border areas only but the internal U.S. scenario is equally affected. As there is a common conception among general U.S. civilians that people, who have migrated from Mexico, are generally of criminal mentality, such ideas have also been fuelled by legislatures, implicitly. According to an available statistical report from the United States Census Bureau, almost eleven million migrants, without sufficient legal documents, are residing in the United States. Due to the common perception, they are often identified and addressed as criminals. Additionally, there has also been the continuous attempt of deportation from the United States. However, though U.S. society and the governance maintain a distance from the Hispanics, they are no less devoted towards the nation and to express this feeling “hundreds of thousands of immigrants in more than 100 American cities marched for a chance to work hard and not to be deported.” (“Not Criminal, just hopeful”, 1st Aug 2009, 1) People like Jorge Rodriguez have voiced the desire of such a huge population that they do not want to be identified as criminals. All they want is a chance to live with proper social dignity and earn their livelihood in the United States itself. (“Not Criminal, just hopeful”, 8th Jan 2009, 2) Unfortunately, in return for such humble request all they have received is uncertainty from the governance and the Sensenbrenner Bill that precisely says, “You’re all criminals and we want you to each other tell on each other and deport each other.” (“Not Criminal, just hopeful”, 1st Aug 2009, 2)

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