The Huffington Post Article, suggests illegal immigration is a symptom and not a problem in and of it’s self. The underlying problem according to the article is that of the drug wars and violence in Central America. Below please find an except of the article:
Several GOP presidential hopefuls have over the last few weeks offered wildly extreme and generally unrealistic proposals for deterring illegal immigration — largely spurred by Donald Trump’s grandiose plan to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, then let a few of the “good ones” back in, all while building a giant, possibly self-branded border wall. Other ideas Republican primary candidates have pondered lately include eliminating birthright citizenship, which is guaranteed by the 14th amendment to the Constitution, because some argue that it acts as a magnet for undocumented immigrants.
While these ideas might energize the GOP’s conservative base, they wouldn’t do much to deter illegal immigration, for one simple reason: All of these propositions rest on the false assumption that most undocumented immigrants are crossing into the U.S. primarily to look for a better life and a higher-paying job.
Anyone who speaks to undocumented immigrants regularly knows that they invariably view the dangerous and expensive trip into the U.S. as a last resort, usually because something went horribly wrong at home — not because of dreams of having a child who is a U.S. citizen.
Most of those who have crossed the southern border illegally over the last few years are not looking for work — they’re fleeing violence in their home countries of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala or Honduras. All four of these countries have experienced a sharp rise in drug-related violence, which is frequently deadly, over the last decade.
Now I agree that the drug violence is a significant motivating factor in why people come to the United States illegally, but it is not the only one. We had illegal immigration long before the drug wars in the americas. The most common reasons I hear are for jobs that pay a living wage and because the immigration system in place is so slow. I agree that illegal immigration is an effect based upon other driving factors. Any attempt to stop illegal immigration, without addressing the causation factors is doomed to failure. It becomes another empty campaign platform, not a sustainable policy.