{"id":7316,"date":"2017-09-08T08:37:29","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T14:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=7316"},"modified":"2017-09-08T08:37:29","modified_gmt":"2017-09-08T14:37:29","slug":"enhanced-border-security-unserious-daca-compromise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/09\/enhanced-border-security-unserious-daca-compromise.html","title":{"rendered":"“Enhanced border security” is an unserious DACA compromise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"from<\/p>\n

I raised the issue the other day<\/a>, of what an appropriate compromise would be, that is, what\u00a0trade-offs would take a step toward mitigating the ill effects of DACA\/amnesty for minor arrivals in setting a general principle of \u201cstay here illegally for a given length of time and we\u2019ll treat you as having a right to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in the meantime, various politicians and pundits are suggesting that the answer is \u201cenhanced border security.\u201d \u00a0This proposal appears in an op-ed in yesterday\u2019s Washington Post<\/a>\u00a0(which just appeared in my twitter feed), in comments by\u00a0House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows reported in The Hill<\/a>, House Speaker Paul Ryan<\/a>, and unnamed \u201cGOP lawmakers\u201d in a Politico report<\/a>:<\/p>\n

GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill, from the top tiers of leadership down to key rank and file, are quickly coalescing around pairing a measure that codifies the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program into law with some modest security and enforcement measures.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(But Politico simultaneously reports that Democrats say that any measures that increase deportation levels of existing illegal immigrants are completely off the table \u2013 which seems to suggest that there are no \u201cenforcement\u201d measures, at this point, that they\u2019re willing to concede.)<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not a serious plan. \u00a0Off all of the potential actions that could be taken, this is the least effective \u2014 and, for some of these politicians, I suspect that this is intentional.<\/p>\n

After all, at present, half of all illegal immigrants are here because they have overstayed their visas, not due to any illegal border-crossing at all. \u00a0And there are no enforcement mechanisms being proposed that will impact this \u2014 not even tracking of overstays, let alone removal of these folks when their tourist, student, or other temporary visas expire, and certainly not a harder line on who we give visas to in the first place. \u00a0Others arrive over water, not crossing over from Mexico at all. \u00a0\u201cBorder security\u201d will not reduce this type of illegal immigration at all.<\/p>\n

In the second place, proposals of drones, a \u201cvirtual wall\u201d, and increased border patrol manpower only serve to catch a greater number of border-crossers. \u00a0It takes further political will to deport them immediately \u2014 if they\u2019re able to claim asylum or other grounds for staying here, and, by learning the right claims to make, be given a hearing and released, then having caught them has no value at all.<\/p>\n

There is, in this respect, a key difference between a physical wall and the so-called \u201cvirtual wall\u201d \u2014 the physical wall prevents would-be migrants from border-crossing in the first place, a \u201cvirtual wall,\u201d at best, still requires us to act to remove them from the country, which, all too often, the federal government has been unwilling to do.<\/p>\n

But, beyond this \u2014 a change of law that requires, say, all employers to check legal authorization to work electronically, rather than just viewing some (potentially forged) documents and checking a box, once implemented, will be part of the employment bureaucracy. \u00a0A change of immigration categories that allows residents to sponsor only their children, not their extended family, will be a part of the new immigration process. \u00a0A formulation, in law, that Mexico is a \u201csafe country\u201d so that all asylum claimants who come through Mexico are ineligible for consideration, would be cut-and-dried.<\/p>\n

And any measures that prevent illegal immigrants from working in the United States would be far more effective, by eliminating the \u201cpull factor\u201d of employment.<\/p>\n

But border security? \u00a0An appropriation for increased manpower, in one budget cycle, can be cut invisibly in the next one.<\/p>\n

For a politician to claim that he is willing to end, or even reduce, illegal immigration, and then proffer \u201cborder security enhancement\u201d as the tool he\u2019ll use? \u00a0Well, at a minimum, I\u2019m suspicious. \u00a0Perhaps they\u2019re just more trusting that this will be effective than I am, but I judge it highly likely that such a politician simply doesn\u2019t care about reducing illegal immigration and just wants to placate restrictionists in order to get the amnesty program he wants.<\/p>\n

And, yes, I said the other day that a big part of the problem was lack of trust. \u00a0On this issue, I don\u2019t trust a man like Paul Ryan to follow through on actual reductions in illegal immigrants. \u00a0And to imagine that Trump will competently implement an increase in border security funding, and that his successor will maintain it, is a joke. \u00a0Even the above Politico article describes what\u2019s envisioned as a \u201cborder surge,\u201d which by it\u2019s very nature, is temporary.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image: \u00a0from pixabay.com; https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/border-mexico-usa-united-states-62866\/; public domain<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I raised the issue the other day, of what an appropriate compromise would be, that is, what\u00a0trade-offs would take a step toward mitigating the ill effects of DACA\/amnesty for minor arrivals in setting a general principle of \u201cstay here illegally for a given length of time and we\u2019ll treat you as having a right to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":5276,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[742,139,463],"class_list":["post-7316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-daca","tag-illegal-immigrants","tag-illegal-immigration"],"yoast_head":"\n"Enhanced border security" is an unserious DACA compromise<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I raised the issue the other day, of what an appropriate compromise would be, that is, what\u00a0trade-offs would take a step toward mitigating the ill effects\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/09\/enhanced-border-security-unserious-daca-compromise.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Enhanced border security" is an unserious DACA compromise\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I raised the issue the other day, of what an appropriate compromise would be, that is, what\u00a0trade-offs would take a step toward mitigating the ill effects\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/09\/enhanced-border-security-unserious-daca-compromise.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-08T14:37:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2016\/09\/border-62866_1920.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"528\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/09\/enhanced-border-security-unserious-daca-compromise.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/09\/enhanced-border-security-unserious-daca-compromise.html\",\"name\":\"\\\"Enhanced border security\\\" is an unserious DACA compromise\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-08T14:37:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-08T14:37:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"I raised the issue the other day, of what an appropriate compromise would be, that is, what\u00a0trade-offs would take a step toward mitigating the ill effects\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/09\/enhanced-border-security-unserious-daca-compromise.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/09\/enhanced-border-security-unserious-daca-compromise.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/09\/enhanced-border-security-unserious-daca-compromise.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"“Enhanced border security” is an unserious DACA compromise\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Enhanced border security\" is an unserious DACA compromise","description":"I raised the issue the other day, of what an appropriate compromise would be, that is, what\u00a0trade-offs would take a step toward mitigating the ill effects","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/09\/enhanced-border-security-unserious-daca-compromise.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Enhanced border security\" is an unserious DACA compromise","og_description":"I raised the issue the other day, of what an appropriate compromise would be, that is, what\u00a0trade-offs would take a step toward mitigating the ill effects","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/09\/enhanced-border-security-unserious-daca-compromise.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2017-09-08T14:37:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":528,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/533\/2016\/09\/border-62866_1920.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/09\/enhanced-border-security-unserious-daca-compromise.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/09\/enhanced-border-security-unserious-daca-compromise.html","name":"\"Enhanced border security\" is an unserious DACA compromise","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-09-08T14:37:29+00:00","dateModified":"2017-09-08T14:37:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"I raised the issue the other day, of what an appropriate compromise would be, that is, what\u00a0trade-offs would take a step toward mitigating the ill effects","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/09\/enhanced-border-security-unserious-daca-compromise.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/09\/enhanced-border-security-unserious-daca-compromise.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2017\/09\/enhanced-border-security-unserious-daca-compromise.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“Enhanced border security” is an unserious DACA compromise"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}