Illegal Immigrants Crossing the BorderEssay Preview: Illegal Immigrants Crossing the BorderReport this essayIllegal Immigrants Crossing the Border“The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there are 8 to 9 million “undocumented workers,” as they are often called, in the U.S., and each year the number goes up by about 500,000. Other estimates are much higher” (Shapiro, 2012). Many Mexicans are crossing our borders every day in order to find a better life for themselves and their families. It has cost many of them there lives in order to make the trek to get here. There living conditions are less than poverty. The majority of inhabitants builds their homes brick by brick and has no indoor plumbing. The thought of a better life right over the border has intrigued many. Due to government policy of limiting how many Mexicans enter the United States, many choose to risk their lives and enter illegally. We will discuss the sociological theories based on illegal immigration, the impact that the Mexican government has on allowing their citizens to cross the border, and the impact have on entering into the United States.
There are two sociological theories that apply to illegal immigration. The first one is deviance. The definition of deviance is simply any violation of societys norms (Henslin, 2010). In the United States, fleeing into someone elses country to find work is a violation of our societys norm. Having thousands of people attempt to illegally enter into our country every day is behavior which starts the relationship on a bad note.
The other sociological theory that can be applied to illegal immigrates is the conflict theory. Conflict theory is based on challenging the status quo, encouraging social change (even when this means social revolution), and believing rich and powerful people force social order on the poor and the weak (Henslin, 2010). Illegal immigration on one hand, allows individuals to have a better life that they otherwise would not have had if they had stayed in Mexico. On the other side of conflict theory, the weak and poor need to stay where they are and figure out how to make their life better or come into our country legally like our grandparents did decades earlier.
The Mexican government has quite an impact on allowing their citizens to enter U.S. soil illegally. Mexican economy relies on the billions of dollars sent home by Mexicans who are, legally or illegally, in the United States (Shapiro, n.d.). Nevertheless, the Mexican government relies on it even more. Most Mexican illegals entering the U.S. are male. Most of them have families that they have left behind. In every case, they must pay steep and constant bribes to the mayor of their town, as well as to the police chief, before they leave and while they are gone. If they do not, no one will protect their wives and children, in addition to the thousands of dollars the illegals must accumulate to pay the “coyotes” that bring them across the desert frontier,
The Mexican government is especially interested in keeping the United States secure. In an effort to keep Mexican citizens secure, it would be nice to see a few other countries take other steps to stop the illegal immigration from this part of the border.
Some countries have taken similar action. Cuba recently agreed to establish a program for safe-entry through a country that has been an ally of the United States. Cuba signed the agreements with the U.S., but they did not do so without serious oversight, although these agreed countries have since started such programs as the Cubans do in Kenya, Tanzania, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and so on. The United States does not have as great a stake in Cuba’s success as many other countries, especially those such as the United Kingdom, Spain, or Canada.
In one of the most egregious cases in recent years, the United States took the position that they have been complicit in the Mexican government and, in fact, it was themselves complicit, through the Mexican government, in facilitating illegal-immigrant entry to the United States. However, the U.S. government has since admitted that they have been complicit with it, making clear that they are not, instead, the victim of a criminal operation in Mexico or of other countries.
Mexico made clear that their efforts to reduce the illegal-immigrant flows of undocumented immigrants were not their business. They argued that, as part of the government’s strategy to promote and provide better services to those in need under the U.S. mandate, the U.S. government was facilitating illegal immigration through the use of an illegal number, including, in addition to their own numbers, the number of illegal immigrants that crossed the border illegally—but that the U.S. did not facilitate them.
However, at the beginning of this decade, the United States government was able to stop the immigration from Mexico through other means. As a result, there was no immediate movement of the number of Mexicans entering the U.S. illegally. On November 4, the Office of Management and Budget published a report titled “Unaccompanied Minor Immigrant Unaccompanied Children: Illegal Entry Into U.S.,” which stated:
Over the last three years, there has been a major increase in the number of unaccompanied minors, mostly from Central America, who have been brought to the U.S. through illegal entry into the U.S. The flow is increasing as the number of unaccompanied minors has increased for the first time since 2004.
A total of 5,250 unaccompanied minors were added to the border between Mexico and the El Paso-San Joaquin Valley in 2006, and 6,900 from Honduras to the Central American border in 2007. This increase is comparable to the number of unaccompanied minors from Honduras to the Central American border in 1995.
Mexican immigration is declining because of illegal immigration:
The number of Mexican unaccompanied minors and children are declining dramatically from their peak in 2001 to their peak