When the topic of border security comes up, the conversation is never about our northern neighbors, or the fish on the east or west. No, it’s always one particular problem spot. A 3,111 km line that separates us from our southern neighbor, Mexico. Whether it’s explicitly stated or not, everyone knows that Mexico is who we’re talking about when we debate border policy.

Now, not all immigration from Mexico is from Mexicans. A relatively recent example of this would be Haiti, where Haitians fleeing their country’s current strife used the Mexican border to illegally enter the United States. Mexico serves a similar role as a launching pad for countries like Guatemala and Honduras. Which does not follow international protocol for claiming asylum. You are supposed to claim asylum in the first country you enter. So yes, this is true, Mexicans are not the sole problem at our southern border. But there’s still an awful lot of Mexicans immigrating to the States. Approximately 6.6 million Mexicans reside here illegally based on 2017 statistics. For perspective, Mexico is a country of approximately 130 million.

All countries have border security. All countries have an immigration policy. Anyone arguing otherwise or thinking the United States should be an exception is foolish. We do have immigration policies in place, unfortunately we’re not very good about enforcing them. But this topic isn’t about the crime that comes with illegal immigration, or the drugs, or human trafficking, or any of the problems you’ve heard on the news a thousand times. No, this is about how immigration, legal or illegal, hurts Mexico.