Our Southern Border

Charlottesville

March 30, 2022

I keep hearing the our border with Mexico is "open" but I don't know what that means. I've been along parts of the border and seen various "ports of entry" where there is some type of screening done. I've seen DHS agents patrolling as far as approximately 60 miles from the border. I've seen border fences. I've seen the Rio Grande -- what I saw wasn't much of a hinderance to crossing (although the desert on either side was). I have been to the Imperial Valley and first hand accounts of people finding bodies in the desert -- "illegals" who died after illegally crossing into the US. If "open" means a free flow of people, I don't think that is what we have. If "open" means there are parts of the border where there is no barrier, I do think that is the case. I suspect we have an "open" border with Canada using that definition.

I hear that some people are FOR an "open" border, suggesting that there are people who don't care that such a free flow of people creates a national security issue (as well as an economic issue). Really? And I guess there are some people that against any immigration into the US. I think we can dismiss both those groups of people asa not helpful to the cause.

All I am doing here is collecting some sources that I have found helpful to my understanding. I've excluded any sources that I think are political -- I am trying to find just the facts so I can comprehend the problem and the proposed solutions.

- The USA Today ran several great articles early in the Trump administration that helped me understand the border. They also flew the entire 2,000 mile border and have a video of every mile. Pretty cool.

https://www.usatoday.com/border-wall/

- Tom sent me these two links which are from a non-partisan organization that studies immigration:

Estimating the Illegal Immigrant Population Using the Current Population Survey (cis.org) Immigrant Population Hits Record 46.2 Million in November 2021 (cis.org)

- Wikipedia is not the greatest source but I found this discussion of "remain in Mexico" to be helpful:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remain_in_Mexico