How To Stem The Flow Of Irregular Immigration On The Southern Border

Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently sent a busload of new migrant arrivals to the U.S. to Los Angeles. Busing migrants around from state to state is transforming America pitting southern states against northern ones and Republican leaders against Democrats. While the problem at the southern border of the United States has somewhat abated since Title 42 has been dismantled, the busing phenomenon underlines the reality that we are still faced with the challenge of what should be done with the migrants that are still coming daily, albeit at a slower rate.

President Biden’s Efforts

The Biden administration has made some progress in addressing the challenge, but clearly not enough. The administration’s efforts to work with countries in Latin America have not yielded much progress. A particular challenge is what should be done with those migrants who are not, legally speaking, true refugees, but rather migrants who have come here seeking refuge from economic poverty, climate change, wars, ecological disasters, and the like. Among the most glaring shortcomings in the administration’s approach to refugee claims is the fanciful assumption that the CBP One app is going to be something easily used by migrants coming to the Southern border. The reality has been the opposite.

Various U.S. Border Proposals

Various proposals have been made to widen the scope of immigrants who can legally come to the United States. Suggestions have included focusing on immigrant-originating countries and addressing their economic disparities, promoting their stability, and supporting their development by helping them to improve their economies, education, healthcare, and infrastructure. Other proposals have sought to improve border security by enhancing technology, such as surveillance drones, sensors, and biometric systems. Still others have proposed collaborating with neighboring countries, such as Mexico and Central American nations, to share intelligence, conduct joint border patrols, and coordinate law enforcement efforts. Various sponsorship programs and temporary guest worker programs have also been suggested. Among the most comprehensive ideas put forward were those of the American Immigration Council contained in their report, “Beyond a Border Solution: How to Build a Humanitarian Protection System That Won’t Break.”

However, there is an undeniable fact we must recognize. That fact is that no matter what, the United States, even with the help of Canada, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, and other immigrant- accepting countries, simply cannot take in the 110 million displaced people in the world today. While there is much we can do abroad to help these individuals, we simply cannot help everyone to come here.

Who Chooses U.S. Immigrants?

The American system is based on the premise that Congress chooses how many immigrants should be allowed entry into the country each year. What is more, the assumption is that the country has an absorptive capacity that needs to be honored to deal with immigrants in an orderly manner. The system operates on the basis that true refugees would presumably choose asylum in the first country that offers them a haven from fleeing persecution. Moreover, the system operates on the belief that its rules will be honored by those who seek sanctuary in this country. Among those rules is that the U.S. cannot allow every immigrant entry all at once but needs to process applicants in an orderly manner, one after the other. These assumptions are being ignored by many of the migrants coming to the U.S. at the southern border today since most of them, whether desperate or not, are self-selecting, venue shopping, priority jumping, and irregular border crossers.

It is a harsh reality that some migrants simply have to be turned away at the border. For them, immigration to the United States is not the answer. But America can do much to help them find a better life elsewhere. That has to be part of the solution.

So what is to be done about the border problem now?

Well, here is one proposal.

A New Southern Border Proposal

With the help of the Mexican government, America should set up a well-publicized pre-clearance system in Mexico near the American border for adjudicating migrant cases. The plan would be similar in nature to the pre-clearance system America employs in foreign countries to adjudicate new arrivals flying into the United States. The purpose of the pre-clearance system would be to ease the border crisis by channeling all migrants currently arriving at irregular southern border points to the U.S. facilities established in Mexico for this purpose. The facilities would operate concurrently with ports of entry dealing with regular immigration matters as they have in the past. Once established, any migrants caught crossing over at irregular border crossings would be summarily returned to Mexico on the basis that they failed to avail themselves of such pre-clearance facilities which could determine if they had a legal basis for entry to the United States. That failure to avail themselves of the pre-clearance facilities would result in the imposition of a lifetime bar to U.S. entry.

Whether one likes or dislikes the Migrant Protection Protocols, it is a fact that the Supreme Court upheld the relevant legal provisions involved and, therefore, they can be a basis for implementing such a system of adjudications. It is true that for some migrants who fail to deal with such pre-clearance facilities, the consequences would be severe. However, those consequences would soon be communicated to others considering making a trek to the U.S. border in the hopes of crossing without approval and therefore should become the basis for diverting people away from illegal crossings.

Triaging applicants would need to be implemented to ensure as best as possible that those who are most deserving be dealt with first. It will be a fact that many migrants will not be eligible to enter the U.S. Issues of safety, accommodations, and survival of such migrants turned back at the border would have to be addressed by both Mexico and America. In many cases it may mean that individuals will need to be returned back to countries they came from. In some cases, they will have to find accommodation elsewhere.

No Perfect Solution

There is no perfect solution to the southern border problem. But this proposal seeks to contribute to the debate about what can realistically be done about it. Short of Congress taking up complete immigration reform, this is a suggestion about what could be done in the interim.