The Border that Cannot Be Closed

Twenty years of deterrence along the Mexican border hasn’t stopped the illegal immigrants from coming. While the Americans intensify border control, the immigrants run ever greater risks in their hunt for the American Dream. Meanwhile, neither the president nor Mitt Romney have enough imagination to come up with an alternative to the “secure the border” mentality.

“Secure the border” has been the mantra in American immigration politics for almost two decades. Despite the fact that Barack Obama and his contestant Mitt Romney seem to disagree on almost everything these days, they are both alarmingly set on continuing the immigration policy introduced by Bill Clinton. And that is in spite of the enormous costs, both economic and human, it has incurred.

The strategy both candidates subscribe to was referred to as “prevention through deterrence” under Bill Clinton. The policy is simple; it is about deterring people from crossing the United States-Mexico border illegally. The problem, however, is that this strategy simply does not work. It did not work under Clinton, and still does not today. You are tempted to ask yourself if it was ever meant to work.

Since 1993 the amount of border guards has quintupled from approximately 4,000 to 21,000, and the budget for the American Border Patrol has increased no less than tenfold in the same period. Not even the troubled American economy has been able to halt this development. The budget has thus risen from $2.25 billion to $3.5 billion since the onset of the recession of 2008.

The staggering amount of money has inter alia gone to the implementation of equipment — originally intended for military use — along the 3,000 kilometer stretch of land shared with Mexico. Infrared cameras, motion sensors, drones and other military hardware now form part of the scenery. Several observers have described this as a decided militarization of the border.

Consequently, for immigrants who hope to make it to the “land of opportunity,” the only route to the United States is through the harsh desert. It is no coincidence that we see the most restrictive immigration laws being implemented precisely in Arizona.

In this context it is important to remember that, as recently as twenty years ago, only a minority of immigrants dared venture into the Arizona desert, as a potentially deadly four-day journey under the blazing sun, without food or water, awaited them there.

Today, this is no longer the case. Even though we have no precise death toll from the crossing of America’s southern border, the weathered bones in the desert clearly speak for themselves.

The American NGO No More Deaths has documented over 161 immigrant fatalities in the Arizona desert just this year. The exact number of deceased, however, is impossible to uncover. What of those who never made it to the border but instead fell into the merciless hands of the drug cartels, like the 74 immigrants who were found decapitated in a barn in northern Mexico two years ago? Tragically, it seems that suggesting alternative ways to tackle the problem equates to political suicide in the United States. The solution will always be the same: secure the border.

Without even blinking Obama put his predecessor George W. Bush’s prestige project into action: a fence along the border that stretches from the Pacific coast to the Gulf of Mexico. When Obama jokingly said in a speech last year that the Republicans would only be satisfied when he dug an alligator-filled moat along the border, he actually revealed more about how far he himself had gone in his endeavor to “secure the border.” Mitt Romney, like his opponent, has no imagination to think of alternatives. From his manifesto, it is apparent that he as president would increase border patrol (yet again) and build even more fences (again), so the border would finally be secure. That, at least, is the vision. Or should it rather be called the illusion?

Even for the world’s leading military power, it is viewed as an almost impossible task to secure the border completely in the remote desert areas. Hence, thousands of immigrants continue to attempt to cross the border every single day.

Skilled Human Smugglers

Ironically, last year’s focus on securing the border has led to a larger need for the so-called coyotes — human smugglers who earn fortunes — as the border can no longer be crossed by just anyone. Now it is necessary to hire a guide who has extensive knowledge of the local terrain. Unsurprisingly, the price for this service has risen significantly over the last twenty years. The supply and demand chain is in place in this type of economy as well. It would not be truthful to display these coyotes as people who solely exploit the immigrants. Of course some do, and those are as a rule the first to flee when police arrive. However, many immigrants are deeply grateful to the coyotes who, despite everything, have managed to help them into the United States. Thus, there is a distinction between good and bad human smugglers.

What else is a person to do when they are utterly convinced their future lies elsewhere? It is an expensive future, but a promising one. Maybe it is in reality too promising. Existence as an illegal immigrant seldom lives up to expectations.

A Hidden Agenda?

After almost twenty years, it must be realized that the “prevention through deterrence” strategy has far from prevented people from crossing the border. The question that begs to be answered is whether it was ever intended to do so?

For many years anthropologist Nicholas De Genova has argued that the purpose of the American immigration policy is first and foremost to acquire cheap labor for the industrial and agricultural sectors. This is a disputed argument, but it is evident that big economic interests are in play, and both presidential candidates are probably well aware of this.

Even if there is not a hidden agenda behind the immigration policy, the reality is that the approximately 11 million illegal immigrants who currently reside in the United States actually prove to be an asset to industry, agriculture and those who seek cheap domestic help. There are only a few jobs illegal immigrants can take on, and these are in the informal sector where the pay is low and the work environments are substandard.

The current economic crisis has not improved the situation; it has only made it even harder for illegal immigrants to find employment. From my own experience conducting field research among illegal immigrants in the United States, it is clear that low job opportunities do not mean that immigrants will return home.

Instead they wait for better times; for the immigration reform act of 2007 that was never implemented; for their children to grow up and hopefully get an education. And suddenly they wake up one morning and realize that ten, fifteen or twenty years have gone by.

For many immigrants the American Dream remains exactly that — an unobtainable dream. Yet that does not mean people are discouraged from crossing the border without the necessary papers. Not even a moat filled with alligators could prevent them from coming.