The United States of America shares a 1,954 mile (3,145 Km) border with Mexico along a variety of terrains, including deserts and urban areas. For many years now the country has been facing with the problem of illegal immigration from countries of Latin American coming through the US-Mexico Border. According to a US based think-thank group, The Pew Research Center, there were about 12.0 million Mexican immigrants living in the country out of which 45% were illegal immigrants in 2016. This made up roughly 26% of the total illegal immigrants living in the country. There are illegal immigrants who come to the country from places like the Middle-East, Africa, Latin America and East Asia. . According to another news outlet, the Washington Post, in May of 2018 Border Patrol agents arrested over 50,000 illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America at Ports of Entry along the Mexico border.
Countries like Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala are some of the key countries where these migrants come from as they flee gang violence, persecution, low economic & social stability, political asylum etc. Due to the high influx of illegal immigrants trying to enter the US, this has created a pathway for drug smugglers, human sex-traffickers and violent gang-members to take advantage of the system and enter the US to carry out their illegal activities which has hurt the country’s economy in many ways.
The issue of illegal immigration has been a hot contentious issue during the US 2016 Presidential elections and even today where President Donald Trump has vowed to build a solid barrier of concrete wall along the border to curb this problem once and for all with an estimate cost ranging from $8.7 Billion to $80 Billion according to various. Although the US House of Congress has recently rejected the proposal for the funding necessary to build the border wall, Trump has called a National Emergency to get the funds he needs to build the wall. The reasons for the failure to control the influx of illegal immigration along the US-Mexico border is due to many factors but some important ones are due to – 1.Bad/ineffective Government Legislation 2. Insufficient funding for US border agents to carry out their works 3. The US Welfare System which attracts a lot of migrants seeking to get a better life 4.Creation of Sanctuary cities of major urban areas which has increased the number of illegal immigrants coming into the country 5. Not enough border agents/police to man the border 6. Political disagreements between the Democrats and the Republicans (the two major political parties) on how best to tackle this issue 6. The non-existence of a solid border wall. American tax-payers are losing money and revenue in tune of billions of dollars every year due to this problem.
In a similar context of our region i.e. the Northeastern part of India, we share a boundary with Bangladesh which covers 4,156 Km (2,582 miles). And has been facing with the similar problem of illegal immigration from Bangladesh post 1947 during the partition period and the 1971 Liberation of Bangladesh, till the present day. Bangladesh has been the major source of people coming into the country illegally with estimates ranging in the millions from states like Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram and West Bengal although there are no official figures to check the influx of these migrants annually. Political parties have been using this same issue to serve their own selfish interests of vote bank politics, identity politics, creating intersectional division based on religious lines and fear mongering with the Congress party using this tactic for decades now and more recently with the BJP.
This persistent problem of illegal immigration into the region has created tension, fear, suspicion and violence across the region due to the threat to the indigenous population and their demography, similar to the outcome of Tripura which has dramatically changed its demographic indigenous population from unchecked illegal immigration. With the recent CAB issue, which the BJP Government had rolled out in 2016, making the hot topic of discussion in the news and in social media, the people of the region have grown more weary and distrustful of the Government and may even lead to more civil unrest if the Bill gets passed in the Parliament which the BJP has promised to do so. Even if it goes without saying that it is purely unconstitutional and sure to cause religious division in the country in the coming years.
In proposing solutions to this issue, it is of utmost importance to the people of this region that the State and the Central Government should come together and propose legislation to secure the border by deploying more border police to the Indo-Bangladesh border, building more barriers of electrical fencing and having more bi-lateral talks and discussions with the Bangladeshi Government instead of allowing large swaths of undocumented immigrants direct citizenship in the country through a Bill which is basically communal in nature and causing large untold economic and social misery to its citizens. Also instead of focusing on the problems for the people coming from different neighboring countries, the Government should focus on solving the issues of its own citizens (of this region) first, who are facing with everyday problems of unemployment, low infrastructure, low connectivity, low large scale private and low economic trade and market exposure.
No individual or person of race, color, ethnicity, religion or place of origin should be discriminated against to come into the country by legal means if they wish to do so but it also goes without saying that no individual should come into the country un-vetted or undocumented or illegally and take advantage of the system to cause economic or social hardship to the citizens of the country. If we were to secure the border properly and if the Government is serious enough to tackle this issue then it would be a huge benefit and relief to the people of this region who want to solve this decades old issue once and for all.
Mongsentong Longkumer
Agri Colony, Kohima
