On Thursday, September 11 I attended a lecture by Todd Miller, author of the book “Border Pa-trol Nation.” Here are some of my thoughts on this lecture and how it relates to our class on international security.
Mr. Miller gave a much generalized overview on the immigration problem and the southern border. Mr. Miller took exception with the description and popular view that the US southern border is porous that we are in a crises. Furthermore, the claim was put out that too much for border security was being allocated in terms of both money and personnel. Another point that was brought up was that many of these people are coming here are children, and that there have a multitude of deaths as people cross the border into the desert no to mention …show more content…
Miller glossed over was that we have no idea who these people are that are coming across the border. Are they felons, drug runners, exploited children (It is important that a child is defined as being for the purposes of this paper/lecture, a person under 14 whereas a minor is anyone under 18years of age, the lecturer gave no distinction), gang members or terrorist. This could be seen as analogous to the Cuban refugees crises when Castro emptied out the prisons and asylums and let anyone come to the United states- boat people; again we had no idea who these people were. This is also an international security problem in that the countries where these people are coming from probably do not know who they are either. This lack of knowledge could lead to safe havens for threat forces across the western hemisphere.
Another anecdote Mr. Miller touched was the death and hallucinations of many of those that come across the border illegally from a combination of dehydration, malnutrition and the ele-ments. A possible solution was to create hydration stations and a means for emergency medical care; I will not argue against these way stations, it is the humanitarian thing to do. However, these facilities would make it easier for these people to break immigration laws and could lead to even more illegal …show more content…
It also a certainty given the current political climate that nothing is going to be done until after the midterm elections, if then. However, more can be done to stem the tide of illegal immigration: 1) Stop making it easy for illegal immigrants to have certain privileges that should be reserved for citizens and legal immigrants. Case in point: Colorado recently allowed illegal immigrants to receive driv-er’s license- driving is a privilege, not a right and under Colorado law drivers are supposed to have insurance. Since legally these people are not supposed to get jobs, how are they going to pay for legally required insurance? 2) Comprehensive immigration reform. The last attempt that received any sort of traction was under George w. Bush and this was defeated in part by members of his own party as offering amnesty to illegal immigrants (part the immigration re-form was the DREAM act. This would have made it easier for people brought here as children to gain legal
Mr. Miller gave a much generalized overview on the immigration problem and the southern border. Mr. Miller took exception with the description and popular view that the US southern border is porous that we are in a crises. Furthermore, the claim was put out that too much for border security was being allocated in terms of both money and personnel. Another point that was brought up was that many of these people are coming here are children, and that there have a multitude of deaths as people cross the border into the desert no to mention …show more content…
Miller glossed over was that we have no idea who these people are that are coming across the border. Are they felons, drug runners, exploited children (It is important that a child is defined as being for the purposes of this paper/lecture, a person under 14 whereas a minor is anyone under 18years of age, the lecturer gave no distinction), gang members or terrorist. This could be seen as analogous to the Cuban refugees crises when Castro emptied out the prisons and asylums and let anyone come to the United states- boat people; again we had no idea who these people were. This is also an international security problem in that the countries where these people are coming from probably do not know who they are either. This lack of knowledge could lead to safe havens for threat forces across the western hemisphere.
Another anecdote Mr. Miller touched was the death and hallucinations of many of those that come across the border illegally from a combination of dehydration, malnutrition and the ele-ments. A possible solution was to create hydration stations and a means for emergency medical care; I will not argue against these way stations, it is the humanitarian thing to do. However, these facilities would make it easier for these people to break immigration laws and could lead to even more illegal …show more content…
It also a certainty given the current political climate that nothing is going to be done until after the midterm elections, if then. However, more can be done to stem the tide of illegal immigration: 1) Stop making it easy for illegal immigrants to have certain privileges that should be reserved for citizens and legal immigrants. Case in point: Colorado recently allowed illegal immigrants to receive driv-er’s license- driving is a privilege, not a right and under Colorado law drivers are supposed to have insurance. Since legally these people are not supposed to get jobs, how are they going to pay for legally required insurance? 2) Comprehensive immigration reform. The last attempt that received any sort of traction was under George w. Bush and this was defeated in part by members of his own party as offering amnesty to illegal immigrants (part the immigration re-form was the DREAM act. This would have made it easier for people brought here as children to gain legal