Border Security

"Why did you come to America, Dad?"
"Where I was, there was no work."

   Border security is not a new worry in the United States, even as the current president makes it a major talking point every day.
   The reality is that the issue has been a major concern of government and private sector officials for many years, and even brought about a college level textbook on the scope of the problem and how to deal with it.
   It's possible that the president actually did read the book, titled "Border Security," by James R. Phelps, Jeffrey Dailey and Monica Koenigsberg of Angelo State University in Texas (Carolina Academic Press, Durham, NC, 2014), but since he's not known to be a reader, voracious or otherwise, it seem unlikely.
   Historically, physical walls have been built to keep out foreigners for more than 2,000 years. The Chinese were one of the first. The Romans built two walls in Britain (the Antonine Wall and Hadrian's Wall) to keep out the Scots. More recently, the Soviets built a wall in Germany to prevent Berliners from escaping to Western areas.
   All those walls were solid structures, built of brick and stone. None worked.
   So why should a physical wall on America's southern border work? In effect, that's the most recent version of a journalist's favorite question: Why?
   Currently, the question is, Why build a wall? The easiest answer is, to keep out others. But a related and more important question is this: Why do the "others" want to come to America? Why abandon their homes and families and face bias and intimidation, as well as possible violence?
   Answer: Because things are worse at home, usually manifest in poor economic conditions and often because of the certainty of violence.
   In short, those seeking opportunity and/or asylum in America are not criminals, but are only seeking a better life for themselves and for their families.
   'Twas ever thus.
   There are, of course, some who do resort to criminal activity, but they are the exception, not the rule.
   In fact, government data show that almost all newcomers are law-abiding residents, and represent a lower crime rate than native-born citizens.
  Moreover, as a practical matter, the last thing those in America illegally want to deal with is an encounter with police, so they are even more law-abiding than their neighbors.
   Additionally, they are subject to abusive treatment by unscrupulous employers who pay them less and work them harder because they know these "illegal" workers have no recourse to legal protection.
   Americans have long been fond of calling the country a "land of opportunity." But bigotry has once again reared its un-American head and is screaming hatred and fear toward those seeking to escape violence and find refuge and opportunity in a new nation.
   And as long as America needs workers to take certain jobs that native-born citizens don't want, the influx of newcomers will continue, regardless of economic conditions.
   Reality check: The American economy is strong and growing, with a low unemployment rate and a need for workers, so immigration will continue.
   But even as the Great Depression got under way in the 1920s and early 1930s, newcomers still kept coming to America, because this is where the jobs are, and things were even worse at home.