National Border Issues and Policy 1

National Border Issues and Policy: An Examination of U.S. Border Issues, Migration, and Policy

Reid Morris, Daniel Domian, Luke Jenkins, and Tanner Pottenger

Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi

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Military with Foreign/Domestic Policies:

Sub point one discusses our foreign policies along with military intervention. My

examples I use is the South China Sea dispute for both foreign and military intervention. The

South China Sea dispute is nothing new and has been going on for quite some time. Ever since

World War 2, the Chinese have been trying to claim back the territory believed to be theirs.

(Snyder S. 1996) says China has been rapidly building up their military (specifically their Navy),

and has been building up the Spratly Islands in the South China sea to build military

installations. They are in direct violation of the United Nations Law of The Sea Convention that

was created in 1982 which creates a 200 mile EEZ off the coast of every nation around the sea.

China however, denies this ruling and has established a rough diagram of the territory they’re

claiming called the 9-dash line. China has been bullying neighboring nations such as Taiwan and

the Philippines into giving up their islands in the South China Sea by using a method that denies

sustainment thus forcing them to leave or risk dying from lack of basic human needs. This ties in

with our foreign policy because our biggest ally in the region is the Philippines and we are

actively working with them to deny China access to the territory. Since the United States plays a

huge role within the United Nations, they are also working closely with other nations within the

UN to try and come up with a plan. The Trump administration has started a trade war which has

hurt China significantly and has halted their progress. The South China sea also allows roughly

30% of the global trade to run through the region, so whoever controls the area, controls a large

portion of the world trade. If China were to control this, economic diversity would be hit very
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hard and the United States doesn’t want that to happen. The United States has sent the US

Navy’s 7th Fleet into the region to monitor China and to intimidate them to stop illegally

violating the Law of The Sea Convention. This is a hard situation to diffuse because China

believes they have a right to the region because they have been using it for centuries and due to

their Communist ideology that the Communist party is above any law in China, they believe they

can do as they please in order to complete the agenda of the party.

My second sub point has to do with domestic policies and our military at the border.

(Gramlich and Noe-Bustamente 2019) say over the past year, apprehensions at the border have

risen over 106% in the Rio Grande, 547% in El Paso, and 153% in Del Rio according to Pew

research in 2019. This is astonishing news because the influx of illegal immigrants can

potentially destabilize the economy and put Americans out of the job due to companies hiring

Illegal immigrants for extremely low wages. Our domestic policies surrounding the border of

course would be to secure the border to prevent illegal crossings from happening. For example,

the border wall that is being built in some areas around the border, or an increase in ICE and

border patrol being sent to the border. What is interesting is the decrease in US military overseas

presence which is now at a 60-year low according to (Bailik 2017). There has also been a

decrease in border patrol agents at the US-Mexico border starting since 2013. This in turn allows

the United States to deploy the National Guard to the border to make up for the lack of border

patrol agents there. President Trump has also sent the Marines to the border to make up for lost
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numbers and to increase our military presence there and to deter immigrants from crossing

illegally.

Effects of Illegal Immigration

For my first sub point, I used the most recent fentanyl drug bust that happened late

January of 2019. Federal officials discovered 254 pounds of fentanyl and 395 pounds of

methamphetamine in a false door compartment of a produce truck. Customs and Border

Protection valued the fentanyl at $3.5 million and the methamphetamine at $1.1 million.

According to the DEA, this amount of fentanyl could kill over 52 million people (BBC 2018).

For my second sub point, I noted the relationship of heroin recorded in the United States coming

from Mexico. According to the DEA, in 2017, heroin from Mexico crossing the border

accounted for 91% by weight of the total heroin analyzed through the DEA. This number was so

staggering to me, and combine that with the amount of fentanyl discovered, it is negligent to say

there isn’t a drug trafficking crisis at the border. In 2017 as well, 1,073 kilograms of heroin were

found at the US-Mexico border near San Diego (DHS 2019).

My second sub point will focus on human trafficking across the US-Mexico border how

it is perputated and what is being done to end it. People seeking a better life are tricked and taken

into forced servitude for sex and labor every year trying to come to America or just taken from

their homes in Mexico. Traffickers called coyotes exploit peoples trust and tell them they can get

them to the US, some do get there but many end up kidnapped by these coyotes and then sold.

Sometimes young girls or prostitutes (some areas of Mexico legally allow prostitution) are just

abducted off the streets, to be used and moved around for their bodies The State Department
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estimates between 600,000 to 800,000 every year, with women and children being the primary

targets. To help stop this immoral exploitation of those taken, it is best to produce better

coordination between the two countries. The Merida Initiative is a bilateral partnership between

the two countries to take down Mexican organized crime networks whose reach spills over into

the states. This would include the movement of trafficked persons. We also need to help shine a

light on the issue to people on both sides of the border, which is what the Bilateral Safety

Corridor Coalition in San Diego. They help victims and try to educate people in the San

Diego/Tijuana border section. Also improving the justice system in Mexico law enforcement

would help as many report officials dipping their hands in by taking bribes and even taking

sexual favors for silence. This was discovered and fought by Operation Limpieza which took

several corrupt officials down, intedning to send a message to the rest of Mexico and the US to

the countries continuing to want to have a morally upright law system.

Media Bias and Effects on Border Policies

For my first main point, I outline the overall meaning and presence of media bias

throughout our national media. In recent times, specific media sources tend to lean more to a

particular media bias in order to portray their viewpoints and ideals. For example, liberal leaning

media sources include some CNN viewpoints, MSNBC and the New York Times. On the other

hand, conservative leaning media sources include Fox News, the New York Post, and the Daily

Mail. As author D.L Lybecker states in his article regarding the presence of media bias in today’s
National Border Issues and Policy 6
society, “This is not surprising to anyone who has watched U.S.‐based FOX news and then

viewed a report about the same issue on CNN or MSNBC—different media sources spin

information differently, creating distinct narratives from the same issue” (Alteman, 2003; Brock,

2002; Palast, 2002), media bias is present and alteres the view of specific issues, depending on

which news source displays the information. Secondly, the massive presence of social media in

current society allows for the expanding of media bias. Now, media sources, politicians, and

celebrities with millions of followers are able to spread their views across the entire globe, giving

a multitude of age groups, races, and social groups to see these views. From the same previous

article, author D.L Lybecker references this phenomenon, saying, “... YouTube will help provide

an understanding of how policy narratives presented in new media outlets add to the policy

agenda both by priming citizen attitudes and determining how the issues themselves are framed”

(Lejano, Ingram, & Ingram, 2013, p. 82). Any access to social media allows new platforms to

display and recognize coming from various media biases.

For my second main point, I evaluated the presence of media bias specifically toward the

U.S.- Mexican border and the nation’s immigration policies. Overall, the nation’s media (mainly

liberal leaning) regards the current situation as extremely negative, due to the presence of ICE

Migrant Detention Centers. Portrayal of this viewpoint comes with using particularly emotional

images and data in order to gain sympathy of the nation. For example, author H.S. Muhammed

considers this data, saying, “Images are an especially useful form of data because people are

more likely to see an image than they are to read an article, and they are more likely to recall the

content of an image than data” ((Dunaway, Branton, and Abrajano 2010). Vice versa,
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conservative media regards the situation as pressing in different ways. They tend to see

immigration and the status of immigrants as “bad hombres” or people attempting to enter the

country to import drugs, sex trafficking, and other forms of illegal behavior. Either way, media

bias is present on this specific issue. Depending on specific ideals and viewpoints, however, both

sides of the situation can be displayed, and depending on the ideas of society, each viewpoint

will be equally spread across the nation.

References
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Bialik, K. (2017, August 22). Where are U.S. Active-Duty troops Deployed? Retrieved from

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overseas-is-at-its-smallest-in-decades/.

Dunn, T. (1999). Military Collaboration with the Border Patrol in the US-Mexico Border

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Gramlich, J., & Noe-Bustamante, L. (2019, April 10). What's Happening at the U.S.-Mexico

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