Homeland Security Issues: An Evolution Of Border Security In America

Introduction

Each year in the United States, millions of people enter the country through proper points of entry and hundreds of thousands of individuals cross the borders unlawfully. According to recent data released from the Department of Homeland Security, roughly 12 million immigrants are currently living in the United States illegally. Border security in the U. S. has been an ongoing issue for many years. Prior to the Trump era and the recent government shutdown due to discord over government funding of a border wall, efforts have been in place to prevent unauthorized entry to the country. Since the tragedies of September 11th, 2001, the U. S. government has added more resources to strengthen border policies and increase homeland security. While the recent events of the government shutdown has brought border security to the forefront of political conversations, this has been an ongoing concern for many decades; such as border control during the prohibition era in the 1920s, tighter restrictions in the 1940s during WWII, increased security over Mexican borders in the 1950s, heightened control during the Cuban missile crisis to prevent drug smugglers from entering U. S. borders, advancing technology and increased workforce in the 1980s and 90s led to such operations as “Hold the Line” and “Gatekeeper” and the Border Safety Initiative (BSI) was created in 1998 along with Mexican officials to inhibit illegal border crossing and to prevent injury and death to immigrants. Post 9/11 era brought new concerns to not only border protection but considerable threats to homeland security as well. After the terrorist’s attacks in 2001, the U. S. government began reevaluating the nation’s border security policies and addressing enforcement propositions and government funding for increased protection. March 1, 2003, the United States established The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U. S. Border Patrol expanded into the U. S. Customs and Border Protection to increase oversight of U. S. borders. Efforts to protect the nation’s borders began over a century ago and continue to evolve today. While the laws have changed, and government administrations have shifted over time, the threat of illegal immigration, drugs, weapons, unlawful activities and crime continues to be at the forefront of political rhetoric and a dominant concern of the United States government. The need to increase border protection and homeland security is critical to economic prosperity, immigration reform, and ensuring the safety and security of United States citizens from attacks and threats of violence. A proposal of a physical barrier could have the potential to begin a purposeful resolution to border security and ease illegal immigration; however, while a border wall may offer some solution to the problem, it cannot be the only solution to border defense and ongoing security threats to the United States. Addressing the funding conflict and opening sensible and informed discussions between the president and congressional leaders is pivotal to ending partial or full government shutdowns and will be essential in finding a common resolution to illegal immigration, border security and threats to the nation’s sovereignty.

Literature Review

In December 2018, the U. S. government began a thirty-five-day shut down due to the president and Congress failing to come to an agreement regarding a long-term budget deal and an allotment of 5 billion in funding for a proposed border wall; becoming the longest government shut down in U. S. history. There were many federal employees and services affected by the shutdown including; the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Department of Labor, Department of Housing and Urban Development, U. S. Department of Education, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and more. With this most recent shut down of the U. S. government, once again border security was highlighted in the political arena. While the details surrounding the shutdown seem to center around building a border wall and government funding, this is not the first time the U. S. government has closed its doors due to funding issues. The United States government has shut down due to disagreements of funding concerns twenty times since 1976. Prior to 2018, the longest shut down in history took place in 1995 when then-President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich could not find common ground on domestic spending cuts. Other incidents in history of government shutdowns include a disagreement regarding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2013 under President Barack Obama, balanced budget law issues in 1995, the deficit in 1990 under then-President George H. W. Bush, defense spending and foreign aid in 1982 during President Ronald Reagan’s administration, and as early as 1976 during the presidency of Gerald Ford regarding a funding bill for the Department of Labor and Health, Education, and Welfare.

While government shutdowns have been a relatively common process in the U. S. government since the late 1970s, the issue of border security stems back even longer. This issue remains at the center of homeland security and border protection today. From the early 1900s to now, many past presidents, congressional leaders, and the U. S. Department of Defense have attempted to find solutions to illegal immigration, border defense, and threats to national security. Since before the focus of homeland security due to the September 11 terrorist attacks, national security at U. S. borders has been a concern; however, the nature of the threats has transformed throughout history and time. Today, border security, government shutdowns, and border walls are a topic of conversation between politicians, in colleges across the country, in homes, and in news outlets, but while this topic is relevant today it is not new and has been an on-going issue for the United States for many decades. Many attempts through time have failed to protect the nation’s borders and while efforts and new laws have been passed to strengthen border security; the U. S. is still vulnerable to threats today and while it is unknown if President Trump’s proposal for a border wall will be successful in this fight against border security it may be a step in the right direction and a possible alternative to the ongoing immigration challenges and unceasing enforcement efforts in the United States.

Border security began in the 1920s and has been the essential bedrock to border safety of the United States. The foundation of border security began with the creation of the United States Border Patrol on May 28, 1924 and what began as an initiative to prevent illegal crossings into the nation through El Paso, Texas, the United States Border Patrol began to coordinate efforts to enforce and strengthen immigration and custom laws along the Mexican border. In the article, ‘Mexican Immigration to the United States: Continuities and Changes’, the authors detail the large numbers of Mexicans that enter the U. S. borders illegally and state, “by far the most important source of immigration to the United States is Mexico. ” This article examines the progression and changes of Mexican migration to the United States utilizing data and analysis. One such result concluded that in 1996, the total Mexican population in the U. S. was 7. 15 million with 2. 35 million or thirty-eight percent were unauthorized or illegal immigrants. The authors of the article mention that large-scale migration from Mexico to the U. S. began around 1900 when the U. S. -funded railroads entered Mexico’s core and U. S. labor workers began recruiting Mexicans from Jalisco, Michoacán, Guanajuato, and Moises Gonzalez Navarro. The article concludes that while there has been a social process that began as a working-class movement in Mexican immigration over a century ago, no major change is notable but rather a continuity of trends and patterns. This article fails to analyze undocumented immigration of Mexicans in the author’s research and the data they utilized for their analysis came from Mexico’s Encuesta Nacional de la Dinámica Demográfica (ENADID) survey that only identified labor migration; leaving data gaps of documented vs undocumented Mexicans migrating to the United States through Mexican borders beginning in the 1900s.

Immigration laws began as early as 1790 with focus on naturalized citizenship, which is the process of granting citizenship to a foreign national and has progressed over many decades leading to national security concerns during World War I which eventually led to the adoption of the Immigration Act of 1924 centering around national-origins quotas; this process was eradicated in 1965 with the Immigration and Nationality Act. The first known law to be passed by the United States Congress was in 1882 as an act to regulate immigration. For a bill to become a law, it needs to pass through both the Senate and the House of Representatives and then signed by the President. Many bills have been passed since the first law on immigration in 1882; significant laws regarding immigration in the United States include; the Immigration and Reform and Control Act of 1986, the 1990 Immigration Act, in 1996 the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act was passed by Congress, Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, and an executive order signed by President Obama in 2012, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was created; the future and fate of that bill unknown since the election of President Trump in 2016. In the article, ‘Immigration Facts: Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals’, the authors provide data regarding undocumented immigrants who entered the U. S. as children. The article presents facts about the DACA program, such as applicant criteria and demographic facts; however, the data used for this article came from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) data source over a one-year time span. As the statistics only cover a year of archival data, the research cannot be a reliable source of a retrospective study. For this article to give a clearer understanding of DACA facts, the authors need to utilize data over a longer period to show accurate or more reliable patterns of a variable progressing or regressing over time.

Since the first laws on immigration passed in the United States, many U. S. presidents have had an impact on immigration and voiced concerns for increased border protection and homeland security. In 1996, President Bill Clinton said, “after years of neglect, this administration has taken a strong stand to stiffen the protection of our borders. ” According to the historical article, ‘The President’s Weekly Address’, President Obama voiced his ongoing apprehension for what he referred to as a broken immigration system during his 2013 weekly address. In the article, the author’s share archival data from the Obama administration discussing such issues as the government shutdown, the economy, budget issues, passing of a farm bill, bipartisanship and securing the nation’s borders. The information gathered for this article summarizes a growing concern for strengthening U. S. borders while at the same time encouraging bipartisan support while building the nation’s economy. The article is a strong source of historical information retrieved from the public record of presidential documents and can be determined to be reliable and valid.

Along with the concern for border protection and threats to the United States, comes the urgent matter of a humanitarian crisis at the southern border. Thousands of children and families are in danger of violent attacks or face health-related concerns when attempting to migrate to the U. S. to seek refuge from their countries. There have been several incidents in history relating to humanitarian crises in the United States; one such event is the war in Syria and the government’s attempts to alleviate the refugee crisis and aid in humanitarian efforts. With the urgency to protect migrants and address the safety concern and threats to the U. S. , President Trump has recently issued a national emergency. Just as border security has been at the center of many discourses across the country, the topic of national emergencies has ascended into prominence and like border security, national emergencies in the U. S. has been somewhat prevalent; from President Lincoln’s ruling to suspend habeas corpus in 1861 to President Obama’s ten declarations of national emergencies during his eight-year term from 2009-2017. Federal law affords some jurisdiction that allows presidents of the United States to respond to emergencies or crisis that are threatening the nation. Reviewing the article, ‘Brief History’, the author summarizes the history surrounding national emergencies in the United States. The article briefly details statistical facts in history; such as President Jimmy Carter’s declaration during the Iran hostage crisis and President Bush’s call for national emergencies following the 9/11 attacks to President Obama’s national emergency in response to the HIN1 swine-flu epidemic in 2009. The article gives background information on past president’s declarations of national emergencies but falls short in researching a broader scope of the rationale for the national emergencies and in concluding the impact or degree in which the national emergency affected the government services, the treatment to the issue, or the final resolution between the president and Congress. However, the article does present historical references of past national emergencies in the United States that provide insight to the 1976 National Emergencies Act and presidential protocol when initiating such power.

In January 2019, President Trump addressed the nation with a speech focused on immigration and the humanitarian and security crisis in the United States. The president stated that there is a real threat to open borders in the U. S. ; providing a gateway for criminals to enter the country. According to the article, ‘Drugs, Violence, and Trauma in Mexico and the USA’, this statement by the president can be corroborated as according to the authors, increased security border issues can be directly correlated to drug-related trade and criminal activity. In the president’s address regarding immigration, he centralizes on the problem of open borders as it relates to the increased drug trade, human trafficking, and crime. The authors of the article acknowledge that a human rights crisis exists at the southern border and that the present climate on illegal immigration in the U. S. is partially associated to gang violence, drug trade, and criminal activity. The president discusses measures to stop illegal immigration and the necessity for a border wall; asserting that crime rates and drug trafficking will be greatly reduced. The article provides substantiated evidence to many of the president’s sentiments and facts regarding an interrelationship of illegal immigration and increased drug activity and crime in the United States; however, the authors provide an alternative solution to this ongoing issue; raising support for a health care initiative as opposed to a physical barrier proposed by the president. The article gives supporting facts and research concerning the threats to open borders in the United States and statistical facts to propose an alternative approach to the humanitarian crisis at the southern border.

In summary, there is compelling evidence to conclude that border security has been and continues to be an ongoing issue in the United States. Historical evidence suggests continued concerns relating to illegal immigration and border security. Past presidents, congressional members, and federal organizations have recognized that there is a significant challenge to effective border control and a demanding need to improve and secure the nation’s borders. Decades before the Trump era and the current debate regarding the funding of a border wall, illegal immigration has been at the forefront of border control policies and the focus of efforts to prevent unauthorized entry into the United States. Over time, many laws have been implemented and government administrations have changed, but the challenges remain the same; it is imperative that bipartisan dialogue prevails, and immigration reform remains a focus of presidents and congressional leaders to improve the nation’s border defense and protect national sovereignty. While there is no factual evidence or supportive literature that can conclude that President Trump’s border wall proposal will bring absolute resolution to the ongoing issues surrounding illegal immigration, border defense, and threats to the nation, but it may likely provide a forward-moving step in the right direction to address the ongoing immigration and border security crisis in the United States.

References

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