The Immigration Act Of 1965

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The history of the US-Mexican border and its function has changed over the years from when it was first created in 1924. Its original function was to keep Asians and Southern/Eastern European immigrants from crossing to America using the border. Overtime, however, political and economic policies in the United States coupled with the influx of Mexicans shifted the borders purpose to keeping Mexicans out. Policies such as the Immigration act of 1965, IRCA in 1986 and NAFTA in 1994 led to a large boom of undocumented immigrants entering the United States “illegally”. With a downturn economy in the United States in the 1970’s and 80’s, many anti-immigration groups have fought to restrict access to the border in hope of keeping America “safe”. The use of immigrants as escape goats is not a new concept as this was seen after WW1 and during the Great Depression that led to the era of deportations of Mexicans. However, in the 1990’s, the influx of Mexicans was greater than before and led to a sense of panic in the United States that they began to create formal operations that were funded by the US government to lower the number of Mexican immigrants to the United States. One of which was called “Prevention through Deterrence”. Prevention through Deterrence, POT, sole purpose was to defer unauthorized immigrants from entering the US so they wouldn’t be arrested. They, Border Patrol that is, did this by building the physical wall of the border, installed with motion sensors and state of the art equipment. They also blocked popular safe routes that immigrants would usually take to cross to America. With the increase of border patrol officers, which was the highest that it has ever been in the years, America seriously believed that they w... ... middle of paper ... ... seen in the series “Border Wars” in which Americans are hunting down Mexicans as if it were a game in order to “protect” our homeland. What is worse is that they paint Mexicans as horrible criminals for smuggling in drugs. They don’t realize how desperate these people are to come to America and earn a living so their family can live. The cost of a human life is something that should be considered priceless. However, to American’s the life of a Mexican or unauthorized immigrant is worthless as they are deemed “illegal” and voided of all rights, even the most humane ones. To a Mexican their lives are worth risking for the benefit of the family they leave behind. To the family of immigrants the lives of their loved ones are irreplaceable and priceless. The creation of a physical border as created the idea that some deserve to live and others do not.

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