Discuss how should the United States best address immigration now?

**ANSWER THIS QUESTION 250 WORDS MIN**

Discussion Questions: Putting politics aside, how should the United States best address immigration now? What about in the next five years? What about the next ten years? (Note: there should be NO discussion of political parties).

**REPLY TO EACH POST 100 WORDS MIN EACH**

1. The U.S. and Mexico border have more threats because of the location and not as many security agreements and technology use in Mexico to cross the U.S. Furthermore, Canada has proved to be working effectively in partnership with the U.S. to prevent suspected foreign terrorists from enter Norther America (DHS, 2017). After 9/11 attacks, the Secretary of the DHS signed a Smart Borders Declaration with Canada and for next five and ten years we need same agreement with Mexico. With this agreement, two nations will share same responsibilities and work closely together to expedite the secure movement of legitimate travel by using 24/7 surveillance technology including pre-emptive profiling of travelers and biometric data sharing of each travelers trying to cross the southern border. Another challenge we face with our immigration is the tensions that are growing between our governments as well as the cartels. It is a complex issue that will require careful evaluation of both strategy and desired outcomes. The smart borders will expand our ability to detect and identify individuals, prevent terrorism including other illicit activity in the U.S. and the southern border region. Five years are not enough to change our immigration issues. Yet, I hope to see better policies that can impact several things like economic, security, and humanitarian issues for the next ten years between the U.S and Mexico/Canada government. In my opinion, immigration policy has really made few changes over the past 15 years. However, for next ten years, I believe we need massive budget increase and the establishment of a lot of the Department of Homeland Security agencies for the U.S. border patrol. For the future border operations, I can see a real effort to secure our borders, especially our border with Mexico and I do not think this has much impact on economic trade with Mexico or Canada. Goods still flow across the border daily. I think it will make a significant impact on both security and humanitarian issues. Security will increase along the southern border quite a bit with both physical barriers and humanitarian efforts will also improve.

2. Each administration has addressed the issue differently since 9/11. The Bush Administration acknowledged that immigration is a large part of what makes the US the nation it is and is part of our heritage. President Bush also acknowledged that the US is a nation of laws and therefore the two ideas would have to be simultaneously upheld. President Obama took several actions to provide relief to undocumented immigrants such as the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. President Trump’s campaign and presidency have focused heavily on border enforcement and immigration discussions. Since the 2016 election, the 2,000-mile border wall has been a focus of his executive orders (Warren, 2017).  Each administration has differing viewpoints on immigration policy. However, with each implementation of a new policy, so has the tactics of migrants.   Unfortunately, five years is not long enough to make an effective change. I think the focus should be on completing the border wall. Not only the physical wall but with a focus on Smart borders. Smart borders are used in many areas of the border already to include the northern border with Canada. Lastly, I think discussions need to be opened with Mexico concerning who they allow into their country. This in turns places pressure on the US as the threat grows due to the flow of people from the south into Mexico. In ten years, I think we need to focus inward, on those illegal/undocumented persons already in the US. According to Warren & Kerwin (2017), in 2014, 42% of illegal immigration was attributed to overstays. After 2007, overstaying a temporary visa became the primary means of entering the undocumented population.