The idea of building a massive wall between the US and Mexico is ridiculous, and the best way to handle the issue of immigration would be to simply open the border, one expert on the issue argues in a new book.
Robert F. Barsky, a professor of French, English, and Jewish studies at Vanderbilt University and author of the book Undocumented Immigrants in an Era of Arbitrary Law: The Flight and the Plight of People Deemed Illegal, came to that conclusion after spending more than a decade interviewing lawyers, interpreters, law enforcement offices, migrants, and others.
Despite recent claims from some presidential candidates, Barsky said that he found no evidence to suggest that immigrants from Mexico were responsible for a higher percentage of crime in the US than the domestic population. In fact, he said, given the risks inherent in crossing the border and the odds of being caught, criminals trying to enter the country do so at their own risk.
Furthermore, Barsky believes that opening borders would make them even easier to police, as a greater number of people would enter the country legally instead of attempting to sneak in with the help of smugglers or human traffickers – the latter of which often ends in tragedy.
Open borders would be safer, better for businesses
In regards to safety issues, the professor said immigration laws themselves keep undocumented men and women living in the shadows. Undocumented immigrants are far less likely to call the police if and when they see a crime being committed, he explained, since those same police could potentially be their adversaries and force them out of the country.
Barsky also said that it was unlikely that the US would be overrun with Mexicans if the borders were open, due to ties that people have this their families and their communities in the countries which they were born in. He also asserts that open borders would be beneficial to businesses, as companies would not have to worry about deliveries or the possible detainment of employees.
Europe, the author explained, should serve as an example to the US: “Who could have possibly imagined that just 75 years after World War II there would be free movement, and people in France would legally work in Germany and people in Germany would legally work in France?”
Open borders would also enable people to come to the States temporarily and then return home rather than getting stuck in a foreign land against their will, and would also spell the end of the “ripping apart of families.” It would allow children to “stay with their parents” and “be educated in the host country legally,” Barsky added. “It means bringing people out of the shadows.”
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