By: Lucee Laursen
In the last several weeks, the Trump administration has begun to strictly enforce illegal-immigration policies. The action has caused at least 2,300 children to be forcibly separated from their families at the border. Hundreds of visceral stories illustrating the immense pain familial separation causes continue to be shared every day. This is a humanitarian crisis; this is a breakdown of what the United States stands for; this is an outrageous decision that does not positively affect the American people.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, there was a 203 percent increase in illegal border crossings from March 2017 to March 2018. This served as the catalyst that led to the, “zero tolerance policy.” But President Trump’s new policy, as announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, seems to focus solely on deterring immigrants from illegally entering the United States. And though solving this issue is important, illegal immigration has not continued to rise because of lax implementation of deporting undocumented people. No, illegal immigration continues to skyrocket because our legal immigration process has become more and more outdated over the years. In order to overcome increased illegal immigration, Trump and lawmakers need to revamp our legal immigration process instead of using a law-and-order-like approach.
It has been proven time and time again that the law-and-order approach does not deter people from continuing illegal actions. Let’s use the war on drugs as an example. In the 1980s, our federal and state governments began to crack down on drug policies after a widespread increase in drug consumption. The goal of these policies was to decrease drug use by arresting big-time drug dealers; that way, drug distribution throughout the country would be stagnant.
What resulted from these harsh policies was: hundreds of thousands of people infected with HIV/AIDS from nonsterile syringe sharing; ballooning drug-incarceration rates that led to thousands of families being separated; profiling and disparities in treatment rampant in drug-related arrests; and more than $50 billion continues to be spent annually by the government all in the effort to make Americans drug-free. Despite all of this, a Pew Research study conducted in 2018 found that 50 percent of urban people say that drug addiction is a major problem in their local community.
What does this have to do with our current immigration policies? Well, instead of dealing with the root of the problem, the Trump administration has decided to crack down on illegal immigration, similar to the war on drugs. This crackdown is not just happening on the border; it happens around our country.
This past May, ICE arrested 32 people at their workplace in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Many of the 32 people arrested that day face not only deportation but also criminal re-entry charges. Someone found guilty of a re-entry charge faces up to two years of imprisonment. To explain: just for being deported and returning to the United States, someone can be forced to serve two years of imprisonment — which is completely and utterly absurd.
A law-and-order-like approach is not the right way to decrease the illegal immigration to our country. Instead, law and order causes undue suffering and harm to one of the most vulnerable populations that lives within our borders. And for those of you who are fiscally conservative, like me, it costs an average of $31,000 to house a healthy male in prison for a year.
How do we avoid all of this? Easy, by making legal immigration easier. If people are able to immigrate legally, families won’t be separated, people won’t serve time for victimless crimes, and the government will save millions in taxpayers’ money.
