Since illegal immigration has been a concern in the United States for many years, various policies have been implemented to try to control the situation.
Both rules that control the interior and those that control the boundary have been put into place.
Immigration policies have also been implemented in an effort to balance society, and over the years, many unlawful immigrants have been deported.
In the past, law enforcement has prioritized preventing unlawful immigration to the country.
To combat lawlessness in the community, undocumented immigrants have recently been deported back to their home nations.
The relationship between crime and illegal immigrants has also been researched, and some studies have identified that most of the illicit incomers do not have a criminal record.
Therefore, it is the responsibility of the immigration bodies to ensure that the immigrants with felonious background as well as those in jail have been deported in order to reduce crime in the society.
Key words: immigration, illegal, crime, deportation
Deportation of Illegal Immigrants and Crime in the Society
Many immigrant-receiving countries have been confronted by the phenomena of illegal immigration which, in most cases, disturbs law enforcement.
The problem affects both the policymakers as well as the public, because it is an issue in which the government has put much effort, especially in the United States.
Border enforcement has been used to curb illegal immigration, but it does not seem to control the menace, as pointed out by Golash-Boza (2015).
As a result, the interior policies have been adopted in order to identify the unsanctioned incomers for deportation.
They include employment verification, screening of individuals in jail-house as well as the use of state and the local law enforcement to identify and remove illicit immigrants from the United States.
The society, therefore, gets rid of the illegal incomers with the expectation that crime would decline.
There is, however, an increased concern about the presence of unsanctioned immigrants amidst deportation enhancement.
There is also the concern of the number of such individuals in prisons.
Problem Statement
There is need to develop an understanding of the relationship between illegal immigrants in the United States as well as the role that is played by deportation in controlling crime in the society.
The scenario calls for an analysis and recommendation on what has been done in the past to curb unlawful emigration as well as what can be done to solve the issue.
Currently, there are implications of policies that are put in place to control illegal immigration.
However, there is still need for more action on this facet.
Addressing the Issue in the Past
The deportation of illegal incomers has been a concern in the American immigration enforcement.
In the past, the Congress as well as the Department of Justice has placed the issue of unlawful emigration as a priority.
It has mostly been done with the aim of extracting the foreign criminals who are in jailhouses as well as those who are in the society.
In the past, different policies that promote alien deportation have been raised.
For instance, the federal authorities filed deportation pipeline with the migrants who were arrested by the local police (Golash-Boza, 2015).
Those who were prosecuted in county courtrooms as well as those at local jails were screened.
These policies were aimed at reducing the number of criminals who were illegal immigrants in the country.
Emigration enforcement also tightened the federal immigration system in order to curb criminality related to illegal incomers (Dreby, 2015).
The system has also been concerned about the number of illegal immigrants in the criminal justice of the United States, especially those who are in prisons.
In 2013, the number of such individuals in jail was estimated to be between four and seven percent (Dreby, 2015).
More than 1.5 million were estimated to be in prison as of the same period (Warren & Kerwin, 2017).
The expenses for maintaining individuals in jail were very high, an aspect which drove the government to look for ways to reduce the numbers.
Concern about the quantity of illegal immigrants in the United States increased, and the government enforced the federal as well as the state authorities to be more informed about their presence.
The latter responded shifting their expenses to the federal administration and demanding compensation for the expense of imprisoning incomers (Dreby, 2015).
It, in turn, resulted in the government enforcing the deportation of the immigrants who were convicted of crime back to their countries in order to reduce the cost of incarceration.
Research has also been conducted on the relationship between crime and illegal immigration, as pointed out by Warren and Kerwin (2017).
The issue of law enforcement is whether emigration increases crime or not.
It brings more people into the society and in the process of interacting with the community.
With the increase of the immigrants in the country, the government responded by emigration in order to put a balance in the society, as pointed out by Vinogradova (2016).
In addition, the research indicated that most of the immigrants are males, a matter which begs the question of whether or not most of them are criminals in their countries (Warren & Kerwin, 2017).
Although the government through its law enforcement has tried to control the number of illegal immigrants in the United States, their number continues to increase, as asserted by Dreby (2015).
The role that this process played in criminal adjudication in the past has also been affected by the common misconceptions (Vinogradova, 2016).
First, there was the perception that enforcement of immigration is exclusively the responsibility of the federal government.
It has brought about controversy regarding the role of the federal immigration system as well as the local criminal justice agencies.
Secondly, there was a misunderstanding about the immigration status where some have argued that the outcomes of it are not relevant in criminal cases, as pointed out by Vinogradova (2016).
This misconception lowered the number of deportations done in the past.
As a result, immigration enforcement was intertwined with the local implementation of a criminal law which was aimed at clearly identifying illegal incomers for being deported.
Proposition to Remedy the Issue
In order to effectively remedy the issue of crime associated with illegal immigration, the government should first ensure that their numbers have decreased significantly via the legal system.
It would be done by controlling the border where incomers pass through to guarantee that those who close in are the legal immigrants.
Border enforcement would limit the number of new incomers into the country, and the government would be left with the challenge of those already in the state (Vinogradova, 2016).
However, interior enforcement policies should be enacted in order to identify illegal immigrants for their removal.
It would reduce the number of incomers in the country, and deportation would be easier to achieve, as pointed out by Warren and Kerwin (2017).
The government should also clearly establish the relationship between immigration and crime in the society in order to understand the current trends.
Vinogradova (2016) asserts that most of the illegal incomers are not criminals and do not have such felony records.
The estimated number of illicit immigrants in the United States as of 2016 was 11 million (Vinogradova, 2016).
As such, it would be impossible to deport all those individuals.
Therefore, the government should first concentrate on the small percentage associated with criminal activities, since focusing on all illegal immigrants would overwhelm the legal system.
Policy Implications
Policies that have enforced stricter laws on deportation of illicit incomers have many implications that range from social, economic as well as political ones.
For instance, immigrant enforcement through political demonization forces many undocumented immigrants to be treated as criminals (Dreby, 2015).
Some of these individuals have families who depend on them, and these policies make them live in fear.
Home raids in search of undocumented immigrants have led to disruption in the society.
In addition, some of the incomers who have no criminal records may also engage in criminal activities in order to safeguard their stay in the county.
Another implication of immigration enforcement policies is the loss of peaceful contributing members of the society.
For instance, federal policies that were introduced in 2016 have made people who have stayed in the United States for more than 20 years to be deported (Vinogradova, 2016).
Most of these individuals come to the states at a tender age, and deporting has caused a major rift in the society as well as a political imbalance.
More than nine million immigrant children exist in the United States, and disrupting of families is considered a human rights issue, as pointed out by Vinogradova (2016).
These children are always in fear of being separated from their parents.
Conclusion
Deportation due to criminal offenses is a good action for the country in the attempt to reduce crime in the society (Dreby, 2015).
However, the immigration enforcement laws should critically strategize their policies in order to avoid harming as well as disrupting the society.
Deploring all undocumented incomers would be a heavy burden, which cannot be easily achieved by the government.
Therefore, the authorities should first deal with the criminals and also enforce stricter laws to control new entry of illegal immigrants into the country rather than those who are already in the state.
It would accord law enforcement the scheme to reduce the number of immigrants in the future, since the problem cannot be solved immediately.
References
Dreby, J. (2015). Everyday illegal: When policies undermine immigrant families. Berkley, CA: University of California Press.
Golash-Boza, T.M. (2015). Deported: Immigrant policing, disposable labor and global capitalism. New York, NY: NYU Press.
Vinogradova, A. (2016). Illegal immigration, deportation policy, and the optimal timing of return. Journal of Population Economics, 29(3), 781-816.
Warren, R., & Kerwin, D. (2017). Mass deportations would impoverish US families and create immense social costs. Journal on Migration and Human Security, 5(1), 1-8.
