The immigration system in the US is dysfunctional, with decades of failed attempts at comprehensive immigration reform. The reason: powerful interest groups are profiting from it. Although immigrants founded the United States, and our nation is supposed to be a land of opportunity for those seeking the “American Dream”, the US has a complex history of anti-immigrant sentiment with cycles that have pushed and pulled people from all parts of the world.
Who are the players who hold the strings that create the conditions migrants are experiencing and what can be done about it?
The migration pull to the US comes primarily from the private sector which needs to fill vacant positions in farms and factories. Undocumented immigrants have become a pillar of the US economy by providing essential workers for the agriculture, meatpacking, construction and manufacturing industries. Businesses often exploit these workers, paying them below market rates while they work long hours in dangerous conditions, and using the threat of deportation to keep them in submission. These are companies taking advantage of desperate people who flee their home country because of gang violence, political persecution, environmental disasters and extreme poverty. 
There is a common narrative that undocumented immigrants accept jobs that US citizens don’t want. The reality is that hardly anyone with citizenship and work permits would accept the conditions undocumented workers have to cope with. Their low pay with no benefits creates market distortions bringing down wages across all these industries. People then blame immigrants, not those who are profiting from this system. Arguments claiming that immigrants are taking jobs US citizens would never accept is based on a racist premise which assumes that some professions are too degrading for white people but perfectly fine for people of color.
On the migration push side, the private sector engages in harmful activities in migrant sending countries. Mineral extractions, deforestation, and drilling for gas and oil exploration displace entire communities. Such activities generate high profits for the companies while local populations are left with contaminated water, toxic air and soil erosion.
Gun manufacturers and dealers in the US also profit enormously from the weapons trafficking through our southern border and to the Caribbean. Most guns recovered on crime scenes in Mexico come from the US, which is why the Mexican government is currently suing the US companies that provide them. Violence and extortion from armed cartels push hundreds of thousands of people to migrate every year.
Migration is a major income generator for cartels operating along the migratory path from the Darien jungle in Panama all the way to Mexico. “Coyotes or polleros” charge migrants thousands of dollars to guide them to the US border; those who can’t pay are kidnapped or killed. Forced disappearance along this deadly route is alarming; forensic studies of several mass graves found that the victims were mostly foreigners. Cartels in Mexico purchase high-caliber weapons from the US, because buying guns legally in Mexico is practically impossible thanks to strict local laws. Cartels then smuggle migrants and drugs into the US.
This private sector-cartel partnership is lucrative, and actors from the public sector, including key political figures, law enforcement agencies and judges, also benefit from this system. In other words, border patrol, ICE, and immigration judges all have their jobs because of the work of cartels smuggling migrants across the border.
In addition to these “push and pull” factors, we must consider the highly restrictive immigration process for both asylum seekers and workers. The backlog at USCIS, the agency in charge of processing visa requests and work permits, has been increasing steadily over the years and is cost-prohibitive for many. This dynamic of restricting legal pathways secures a consistent flow of desperate people who leave everything behind and risk their lives trekking through life threatening jungles and deserts, falling prey to cartels.
The reality is that we all benefit. The lower labor costs that irregular migration facilitates translates into lower retail prices for US consumers. Everyone ends up being complicit in this exploitative system through our never-ending demand for cheap goods and drugs.
So, what can we do to change this dynamic?
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Lobby with Congress and the US Administration to pass laws to stop the illegal flow of guns that arm cartels in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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Promote non-intervention policies that protect the sovereignty of every country over the management of their natural resources.
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Expand the asylum and refugee resettlement program that welcomes the most vulnerable people with dignity and protects their human rights.
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Expand the work-visa program to enable businesses to fill their vacancies while guaranteeing workers’ rights are respected.
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Address other root causes of migration including drug enforcement reforms, debt relief, terminating counterproductive sanctions and meddling into the economy of countries the US is not aligned with.
Quixote Center is organizing a series of webinars to delve more deeply into these issues and is working with coalitions to promote these reforms to Congress. Thank you for your contributions and support.
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