Both sides are competing over who can continue to perpetuate the same old failed immigration myths.
Kamala Harris visits the US-Mexico border with US Border Patrol Tucson Sector Chief John Modlin (R) in Douglas, Arizona on September 27, 2024.
(Rebecca Noble/AFP via Getty Images)
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are competing over who can appear tougher on immigration, particularly at the US-Mexico border. Their approach is both flawed and flawed.
During the last month presidential debatesHarris boasted that she supported the border bill, which would “send 1,500 more border guards to the border to help those people who are working there now trying to do their jobs over time (and) to dedicate more resources to allow us to go after transnational criminals.” organizations for trafficking in arms, drugs and people”.
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For his part, Trump has repeatedly said, “We’re (allowing) these millions of people to come across the southern border,” adding that he would “sign a bill to close the border.” Asked about his proposal to conduct the largest domestic deportation operation in the nation’s history using the National Guard, Trump said he would also use “local police.” Trump also used derogatory terms (not to be repeated) to describe immigrants.
We’ve seen this movie before. US presidents of both parties have pursued “tough,” often deadly border policies for 30 years. They didn’t work. It’s time for US leaders to recognize the folly of policies aimed at deterring immigration and rethink how borders can be managed in a way that respects human rights.
Since the presidency of Bill Clinton, the US government has deliberately used an increasingly punitive and deadly strategy of “prevention through deterrence” to discourage migration to the US-Mexico border. The first implemented by the border service in August 1994“prevention through deterrence” and its subsequent permutations aim to force migrants into increasingly life-threatening conditions as a way to dissuade them from crossing the border.
Containment policies have included increased prosecutions and imprisonment for minor offenses, building border walls, deploying more agents and invasive surveillance technologies, and speedily removing people without due process. The government has illegally barred people from applying for asylum, separated children from their parents or guardiansand made non-Mexicans wait in Mexico for months while they use the faulty (by the government’s own admission) immigration appointment phone app — everything facing abuse and violence from Mexican criminal gangs and corrupt local officials.
This policy may reduce the number of border crossings for a short time. We are now seeing a drop in migrant encounters at the US-Mexico border following recent announcements from the Biden administration ban on granting asylum and elevated the often abusive, prohibitive efforts of Mexican officials.
But we know from decades of experience that the pendulum eventually swings back, no matter how much pain our policies cause. This is largely because deterrence tactics do not address why people move, which is often to live with family members in the United States or to find a better and safer life for themselves.
And to make matters worse, even as the number of encounters is decreasing, the number of migrant deaths appears to be increasing. For example, representatives of the El Paso Border Patrol sector reported the find a record number of human remains in recent months. Instead of dissuading migrants from coming, these policies encourage them to cross through the most distant countries and more deadly parts the border
In 2022 (the latest year for which data are available across the entire border), the Border Patrol documented more than 850 human remains found in the border. Since 1994, the border guard has been recording nearly 10,000 human remainsincluding women, pregnant women, and children and toddlers. Unfortunately, containment efforts at the US-Mexico border contribute to the tragic and growing number of deaths and disappearances of people who come to the US seeking safety, reunification with family members, or seeking a better life.
Regardless of who is president, it is time for the United States to adopt a new approach that prevents unnecessary deaths and is based on international human rights and refugee standards, including policies that respect, at a minimum, the human right to life and family unity.
For a fraction of the billions of taxpayer dollars spent on border fortification, the US government could instead invest in a human rights-friendly border management process that brings together government and non-government entities to establish reception centers at ports of entry staffed by asylum officers and immigration. judges, health professionals, trauma counselors, children’s specialists and other humanitarian service providers. Congress should also expand migration pathways that embrace the complex and multifactorial reality of human movement.
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And American candidates for political office should also change their rhetoric and instead talk about how immigrants earn huge contributions to the United States, including by strengthening the economy, providing health care, and expanding innovative and productive industries.
In this way, the United States would become an example for other countries to follow.
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