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Brian Jackson

Professor Sandowicz

Freshman Composition

11 December, 2023

Increase Border Security

The ongoing immigration of foreigners from countries like Mexico, India, and China into

the United States has greatly changed the country’s diversity and new perspectives on different

cultures. There are many great things that immigrants have brought with them when moving into

the country like Cinco De Mayo, Hanukkah, outstanding food variety, and music just to name a

few, but letting in as many undocumented immigrants as the country currently does now is

dangerous. There are currently 11-12 million undocumented immigrants roaming the country

doing who knows what and there have been reports about that being where most illegal drugs are

coming from and a lot of other criminal activity. The openness this country has is good for the

immigrants that want to escape poverty and also the people because they offer their own services

but offering citizenship to anyone that shows up at the border is the same as unlocking all the

doors and cages to a zoo. Although the country can benefit from the things immigrants offer

when entering the United States, granting immediate citizenship to anyone without a filter is how

the country can be corrupted and more and more dangerous which is why this country should

increase their security at the border and make sure every immigrant they allow to cross the

border is accounted for and trusted to live among the citizens.

There are many obvious benefits and drawbacks of letting people that have crossed the

border live in the country. America would be very different without immigration especially in
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relation to holidays. Most of the holidays celebrated in the United States have come from

somewhere across the globe. Cinco de Mayo and Dia de los Muertos from Mexico, Mardi Gras

from medieval Europe and St Patrick’s Day from Ireland. Even some American holiday

traditions were spread from other countries and adopted. Ricahrd Alba and Victor Nee point out

how, “Christian tradition of the Christmas tree and the leisure Sunday made their way into the

American mainstream because German immigrants and their descendants brought these

traditions with them.”(qtd. in The Next Americans, para. 6). Immigrants not only bring radiant

culture but research shows that they improve the economy. Pia Orrenius from the George W

Bush Institute says, “When immigrants enter the labor force, they increase the productive

capacity of the economy and raise GDP.”(Benefits of Immigration Outweigh the Costs, para. 5).

The process of immigration can benefit both sides starting from the benefits immigrants provide

mentioned and the freedom and chance of a new life that America offers the immigrants. The one

problem that can seriously hurt the country is illegal immigration. America is a country that

protects itself and provides humanitarian aid to those in need so to accomplish both, the border

must be tight and strengthened to filter out the illegals that could plague the country while also

allowing the poor and needy families to enter.

“Border security is national security — there is no difference — and the crisis on our

southwest border puts our national security at risk,” said U.S. Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost

(qtd. Border Crisis: CPB’s Response, para. 9). There has been a rising number of illegal

immigrants that cross the border every year. According to the Pew Research Center, the number

of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. kept going up until it hit its peak in 2007 of around 12

million. It went down a bit but is now very close to bouncing back to its peak with a little over 11
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million this year and if security isn’t tightened, the number will continue to rise. The border

patrol has put too much energy into their humanitarian efforts at the border than they have on

security. They make rules that make it easy for illegal aliens to come straight in like letting

people in that have children and drug smugglers by charging them with a court sentence that isn’t

applicable for a few years. “Smugglers are exploiting these loopholes to encourage more

migration. They openly advertise a safe and legal journey to the United States, misleading

families by telling them there is a policy that anyone who arrives with a child will not be

deported.” said Brian Hastings (qtd. in Border Crisis: CBP’s Response, para. 22). It’s so easy for

any drug smuggler to get into the United States and start a new life, they openly turn themselves

in “knowing that they will be released with a court date years in the future,” and this is why

precautions need to be taken seriously at the border so the country can actually be protected.

Ever since Biden took office, the security at the border between Mexico and the United

States has become less and less strong and easier and easier for unauthorized immigrants to be

granted citizenship. “In 2023 alone, Border Patrol agents have encountered thousands of illegal

aliens with prior criminal convictions, including assault, rape, and murder. The true extent of

crimes committed by illegal aliens remains unknown because there are also over 1.5 million

unaccounted for “gotaways” since Biden’s term began.” (Increased Illegal Immigration Brings

Increased Crime, para. 4). This problem is getting out of control with the thousands of convicts

that find their way past the border to roam free and do whatever they want until they get caught.

There are even more that we don’t even know about. They have made it very easy for a person to

come from anywhere and be able to live in the country but that needs to change if the

government or the people care about the country and protect it from pedophilia, drug lords,
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murderers, robbers, etc. The security must be tightened to only allow lawful immigrants to even

have the privilege of being granted citizenship. Before Biden, the Department of Defense (DOD)

and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had been trying to “harden the southern

border” quote by Air Force gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, the commander of U.S. Northern

Command and North American Aerospace Command in 2018 (qtd. in US Department of

Defense, 5,200 Personnel Moving to the Southwest Border, para. 1). What the U.S. needs to do is

stop worrying about the amount of immigrants that can vote for the side they want or how they

can increase the economy but think about the welfare of the people actually living there. They

need to turn the tides of increasing incoming illegal immigrants backwards and try to at least cut

the numbers living among us by half. It will be hard to find them all from the inside but to

prevent more from coming in, necessary precautions must be taken. They need to make the

technology at the border more advanced so they know the exact number of immigrants they are

letting in. Also, stop anyone with drugs, weapons, or anything else right in their tracks and keep

them out. The actions taken to prevent any further breach of the border can be effective and can

make the nation stronger and more valued, keeping the people safe and stopping any threat that

could destroy our country as a whole.

So many countries have different policies in regards to immigration and who they let into

their country to live among their own people. The smartest and safest ones are those that have

very strict policies. America’s policies on immigration do not seem to be strict and that is why

the cultures and ethnicities of the country are diverse and interesting. It is also the reason why

America is very dangerous in a lot of places. From the Daily Signal, a 2021 Department of

Justice report revealed that 64% of federal arrests in 2018 involved noncitizens (Increased Illegal
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Immigration Brings Increased Crime, 2023). To protect the current citizens of the United States

from minor domestic threats because of increased illegal immigration like robbery or organized

crime to major domestic threats like terrorism, the country’s borders and the security there must

be enforced and more advanced. To both provide humanitarian aid to immigrants in need and to

protect the country from being infected by illegal aliens, the border can put more prioritization

over keeping perfect records of who they let in and keeping dangerous suspects out for good.

Illegal immigration could be a leading factor to the falling of the country or at least parts of it so

it must be stopped at all costs.

Works Cited

Jimenez, Tomas. “The Next Americans.” Los Angeles Times, 2007.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-may-27-op-jiminez27-story.html

Orrenius, Pia. “Benefits of Immigration Outweigh the Costs.” The Catalyst, issue no. 2, 2016,

George W. Bush Institute.

https://www.bushcenter.org/catalyst/north-american-century/benefits-of-immigration-outweigh-c

osts

Davis, John. “Border Crisis: CBP’s Response.” Frontline Magazine, 2023, U.S. Customs and

Border Protection.

https://www.cbp.gov/frontline/border-crisis-cbp-s-response#:~:text=Pull%20factors%20include

%20a%20booming,%2Dbillion%2Ddollar%20criminal%20enterprise.

Davis, Hannah. “Increased Immigration Brings Increased Crime Almost 2/3 of Federal Arrests

Involve Noncitizens.” The Daily Signal, 2023.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/06/15/bidens-open-border-policies-are-killing-innocent-ameri

cans-aliens-alike/?_gl=1*191sy3m*_ga*NTg4NDQwNTg5LjE3MDIzMTcxMzU.*_ga_W14BT

6YQ87*MTcwMjU4Njc1Ny4zLjEuMTcwMjU4Njg5NS42MC4wLjA.

Garamone, Jim. “5,200 Active-Duty Personnel Moving to Southwest Border, Northcom Chief

Says.” U.S. Department of Defense, 2018.

https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/1675810/5200-active-duty-personn

el-moving-to-southwest-border-northcom-chief-says/
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