Mexican Border Crossing

By: Joe Mauricio

 

Illegal Mexican border crossing to U.S. went down 40% in Donald Trump’s first month in office. according to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.

And it’s all happening before we even have a blueprint for that big and tall wall Trump keeps on promising us. The fear of a crackdown on illegal immigrants can be greater and more powerful than a wall.

Remember that an illegal border crossing into U.S. is risky enough. If the chance of getting deported once inside the country had just gone up significantly, it starts to look like a much better option not to try in the first place.

Fueled by rumors and false news reports, tens of thousands of Central American migrants trekked across Mexico under false belief that President Obama had opened the U.S. border to young people.

The U.S. apprehended as many as 68,000 of them, but the deluge did not subside until Obama called it an urgent humanitarian situation and the actual U.S. position was clarified in the American and Central American media.

That leaves us with a question, if simply promising to crack down on illegal immigration works so well, why do U.S. taxpayers need to foot the bill for new border wall at all. The answer is we probably don’t, if curbing illegal immigration is really the goal, that is.

But now Pres. Trump and others have called for building the wall is important for jobs and infrastructure projects. To be clear, the key part on the ongoing deterrence of illegal crossing of any kind is improving its physical security.

Tough talks on deportation need to be backed up with action from time to time ro keep that message alive and potent. Trump and his supporters would like to see something that resembles more permanent border security that would survived beyond his presidency.

Maybe that was the Trump team’s plan all along. Promise big wall and mass deportation and reap the benefits of reduced illegal immigration. But, either way, the first 100 days of Trump presidency has taught us all something very important about the power of messaging compared to power of actual policy.

Trump has mentioned Mexico frequently since his first day on the campaign trail. He said that he was personally offended by the mainstream media’s attempt to distort his comments regarding Mexico.

But last month, Trump signed an executive actions ordering the construction of a border wall with Mexico and ramping up deportations, fulfilling two of his signature campaign promises.

Mexico and the U.S. share a border that is nearly 2,000 miles long. Until recently, a wall existed along several parts of the border. The old wall was built from military surplus metal landingmats and replaced them with bollard style fencing.

The bordr patrol agens prefer the new fencing that allows agents to see what is happening on the other side, making it harder for smugglers to hide. It also reduces the chance of agents being hit by a rock. You can look through and see that no one is over there, or what’s going to come at you in the next few seconds.

Just wondering what some Mexican-Americans think about the wall, as it implies that there is no benefit or that there is no positive impact from ther relationship with the southern neighbors.

Americans often forget that the large part of U.S. once belonged to Mexico. Most Mexicans are keenly aware that the U.S., eager to expand west invaded Mexico and the two countries fought a war from 1846-1848. When it was over, Mexico lost half of its territory to U.S., including present-day California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and part of Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico. The war followed the U.S. annexation of Texas. ##