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   Article # 2: Foolish Fences
                                    by Douglas S. Massey

    It’s no secret that the U.S. immigration system is badly broken. Indeed, it has been broken since 1986 and is getting worse. Rep. Steve
    King (R-Iowa) has proposed building a fence along the entire border with Mexico. President Bush, speaking this week in Arizona,
    emphasized the need to choke off the flow of illegal immigrants, stating that “illegal immigration’s a serious challenge, and our
    responsibility is clear. We are going to protect the border.”

    Unfortunately unilateral attempts to close the border won’t solve the problem of undocumented immigrants. They will only make it worse.
    The central problem concerns the relationship between Mexico and the United States. Mexico is different from other countries. Next to
    Canada, it is our largest trading partner. W share a border of almost 2,000 miles with Mexico and trade currently totaling $286 billion
    a year. The movement of goods and services is accompanied by the movement of people. In 2004 some 175,000 legal immigrants arrived
    from Mexico, along with 3.8 million visitors for pleasure, 433,000 business visitors, 118,000 temporary workers, 25,000 intra-company
    transferees, 29,000 students and exchange visitors and 6,200 traders and investors. At the same time, one million Americans live in
    Mexico and 19 million travel there each year as visitors. U.S. foreign direct investment in Mexico totals $62 billion annually.

    These massive cross-border flows occur by design, under the auspices of the North American Free Trade Agreement. But at the heart of
    NAFTA lies a contradiction: Even as the United States moves to promote free movement of goods, services, capital and information, we
    as a nation somehow seek to prevent the movement of labor. We wish to create a North American economy that integrates all markets
    except one: that for labor.

    To maintain the illusion that we can somehow integrate and still remain separate, the United States has militarized its border with a
    friendly country that poses no conceivable threat to U.S. national security. Even as binational trade with Mexico grew eightfold from
    1986 to the present, the Border Patrol’s enforcement budget increased tenfold. The U.S. Border Patrol is now the largest arms-bearing
    branch of the U.S. government save the military itself, with an annual budget exceeding $1.4 billion.

    But our attempts to stop the flow of Mexican workers into the United States through unilateral enforcement have not only failed
    miserably, they have backfired. Heightened border enforcement has not deterred would-be immigrants from entering the United States,
    nor has it reduced the size of the annual inflow. What it has done is channel migrants away from traditional crossing points to remote
    areas where the physical risks are great but the likelihood of getting caught is small. As a result, the number of deaths has risen to
    around 460 persons per year while the probability of apprehension has fallen from a historical average of around 33 percent to a current
    level around 10 percent.

    We are spending more tax dollars to catch fewer migrants and cause more deaths; and once deflected away from traditional crossing
    points, Mexicans have moved on to new destinations. Whereas two-thirds of Mexicans who came to the United States during 1985-90
    went to California, in the past five years only one-third have done so. Our misplaced border policies have transformed what was a limited
    regional movement affecting three states into a mass migration to 50 states.

    U.S. policies have also pushed Mexican migrants away from seasonal movement toward permanent settlement. Raising the costs and
    risks of undocumented entry has not deterred would-be migrants from coming.
    Paradoxically, it has discouraged them from going home once they are here. Having faced the hazards of border crossing, undocumented
    migrants are loath to do so again, and instead and hunker down for the long term. As migrants stay away from home longer, they
    increasingly send for spouses and children. Rather than remaining a circular flow of temporary male workers, Mexico-U.S. migration has
    become a settled population of permanent residents and families, driving up the social and economic costs of immigration to American
    taxpayers.

    Rather than attempting to stop the cross-border movement of workers through unilateral police actions, we should bring these flows of
    people above board, legalize them and manage them in ways that minimize the costs and maximize the benefits for all concerned.
    Instead of viewing Mexican migration as a pathological product of rampant poverty and rapid population growth, we should see it for what
    it is: a natural byproduct of economic development in a relatively wealthy country undergoing a rapid transition to low fertility in close
    association with the United States. Mexico has a trillion-dollar economy with a per-capita income approaching $10,000, a 92 percent
    literacy rate, a total fertility rate of 2.2 children per woman, and population growth of just 1.2 percent per year. Seeking to manage
    immigration rather than repress it would put policymakers in a better position to protect U.S. workers, lower the costs of immigration to
    taxpayers, and enhance the security of American citizens.

    The writer is a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University and coauthor of the book “Beyond Smoke and Mirrors:
    Mexican Immigration in an Age of Economic Integration.”



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