Border Security

In an era when countries and their populations are increasingly exposed to the opportunities and risks associated with the ever-expanding global movement of people, policymakers are rethinking approaches to border controls and border management. These policies and programs run the gamut—from facilitating the legitimate movement of people and trade to thwarting the unauthorized movement of humans and contraband, the latter a significant preoccupation in the post-9/11 era and as publics have become ever less accepting of illegal immigration. The research offered here examines the management of borders, enforcement policies and initiatives, and technologies used in pursuit of border security.

Recent Activity

Commentaries March 2021 Hampered by the Pandemic: Unaccompanied Child Arrivals Increase as Earlier Preparedness Shortfalls Limit the Response By Mark Greenberg	Commentaries February 2021 Biden Administration Is Making Quick Progress on Asylum, but a Long, Complicated Road Lies Ahead By Doris Meissner and Sarah Pierce
Articles February 25, 2021 Legal Snags and Possible Increases in Border Arrivals Complicate Biden’s Immigration Agenda By Muzaffar Chishti and Jessica Bolter	Articles February 11, 2021 Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States By Jeanne Batalova, Mary Hanna, and Christopher Levesque
Multimedia February 5, 2021 A Way Forward on Migration Under the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union?	Articles January 27, 2021 Biden Sets the Stage for a Remarkably Active First 100 Days on Immigration By Muzaffar Chishti and Sarah Pierce
Multimedia December 17, 2020 Moving Beyond Pandemic: Could Curbing Globalization Prevent Future Pandemics?	Reports December 2020 Construcción de un nuevo sistema migratorio regional: Redefiniendo la cooperación entre Estados Unidos con México y Centroamérica By Andrew Selee and Ariel G. Ruiz Soto

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Reports January 2014 Spheres of Exploitation: Thwarting Actors Who Profit from Illegal Labor, Domestic Servitude, and Sex Work By Meghan Benton	Reports January 2014 A Strategic Framework for Creating Legality and Order in Immigration By Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Will Somerville
Policy Briefs January 2014 IRCA in Retrospect: Guideposts for Today’s Immigration Reform By Muzaffar Chishti and Charles Kamasaki	Reports January 2014 Trade-Offs in Immigration Enforcement By Elizabeth Collett and Will Somerville
Books December 2013 Managing Borders in an Increasingly Borderless World	Fact Sheets August 2013 Side-by-Side Comparison of 2013 Senate Immigration Bill with Individual 2013 House Bills
Reports August 2013 Pensando Regionalmente para Competir Globalmente: Aprovechar la Migración y el Capital Humano en Estados Unidos, México y Centroamérica By Demetrios G. Papademetriou, Doris Meissner and Eleanor Sohnen	Reports May 2013 Thinking Regionally to Compete Globally: Leveraging Migration & Human Capital in the U.S., Mexico, and Central America By Demetrios G. Papademetriou, Doris Meissner and Eleanor Sohnen

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Policy Beat

June 27, 2019

Spike in Unaccompanied Child Arrivals at U.S.-Mexico Border Proves Enduring Challenge; Citizenship Question on 2020 Census in Doubt

Approximately 11,500 unaccompanied children were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border in May, putting this year on track to exceed 2014's surge. As the U.S. government struggles to care for these child migrants, with public outrage mounting over reports of unsafe, filthy conditions in initial Border Patrol custody, the failure of the executive branch and Congress to plan for increased shelter and care demands are increasingly apparent, as this article explores.

President Trump and a Customs and Border Patrol officer stand together

Policy Beat

April 25, 2019

Despite Flurry of Actions, Trump Administration Faces Constraints in Achieving Its Immigration Agenda

Though it has achieved success in some areas, the Trump administration’s many efforts to stiffen immigration enforcement in the U.S. interior and at the Southwest border are being consistently stymied by court injunctions, existing laws and settlements, state and local resistance, congressional pushback, and migration pressures that are beyond the government’s ability to swiftly address, as this article explores.

Policy Beat

March 28, 2019

Remain in Mexico Plan Echoes Earlier U.S. Policy to Deter Haitian Migration

Remain in Mexico—the Trump administration policy aimed at deterring the rising numbers of migrants from Central America by requiring them to stay in Mexico through most of their U.S. asylum adjudication process—bears striking similarities to U.S. policy in the 1980s and 1990s that sought to discourage Haitians from making the sea journey to the United States. This article explores the parallels and differences between Remain in Mexico and the earlier narrowing of asylum for Haitians.

Feature

March 7, 2019

Protection and Reintegration: Mexico Reforms Migration Agenda in an Increasingly Complex Era

Mexico is facing a new reality: Rising migration from Central America, the reintegration of returning migrants, and protection of Mexicans in the United States. As President Andrés Manuel López Obrador seeks to shift the country’s migration policy from enforcement to protection, his task is complicated by changing U.S. border policy and the need to avoid domestic backlash over Central American migration to and through Mexico.

Policy Beat

February 28, 2019

Executive Power Showdown: Congress and White House Quarrel over Immigration Spending

Though a faceoff between the U.S. executive and legislative branches is now in the courts, with President Trump's decision to declare a national emergency so he can allocate more money for construction of a border wall, a less-noted dispute has been taking place over the Department of Homeland Security's decision to add thousands more immigration detention beds than Congress provides annually, as this article explains.

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EVENT PHOTO 2018.3.19 Immigration Data option 2a

Video, Audio

March 19, 2018

Immigration Data Matters: How to Find the Most Accurate Resources

With immigration increasingly visible in the news and the political space in the United States and internationally, getting access to accurate, high-quality data is essential to understand immigration’s demographic effects and impacts on the economy, education and labor systems, and communities. This event marks the release of the Immigration Data Matters guide.

2018.2.28 Immigration Enforcement and Education Wilson Center co sponsor

Video

February 28, 2018

The Impact of Immigration Enforcement Policies On Teaching and Learning in America’s Public Schools

In an era of stepped-up immigration enforcement, speakers at this event present their research on the impact of enforcement policies on children from immigrant families and U.S. public schools.

Video, Audio

September 25, 2017

14th Annual Immigration Law and Policy Conference

In a year when immigration has been prominent in the headlines, the 14th annual Immigration Law and Policy Conference provides timely policy and legal analysis, with expert discussion covering the shifting immigration policy priorities under a new administration, including changes in immigration enforcement, border enforcement, refugee resettlement, the treatment of unaccompanied minors and the

EVENT PHOTO 2017.8.31 flickr cesar bojorquez Un dia sin migrantes (Tijuana B.C. Mexico)

Audio

August 31, 2017

La Situación de Cambio Constante entre EE UU y México: Tendencias y Políticas de Migración, Incluyendo Menores No Acompañados

Durante este seminario, ponentes presentaron hallazgos de un reciente informe que utiliza datos de agencias gubernamentales mexicanas, entrevistas con funcionarios clave y relatos de la sociedad civil para examinar el marco legal para la protección de menores no acompañados y su aplicación, al igual que las brechas entre este marco y su aplicación durante los procesos de detención, interrogación y alojamiento. El presidente de MPI, Andrew Selee, también expuso cómo el cambio en la dinámica política en Estados Unidos puede afectar las cuestiones migratorias con México, así como los efectos en la relación bilateral en medio de tensiones sobre el muro fronterizo, la renegociación del acuerdo del TLCAN y una cifra significativa de repatriaciones de migrantes mexicanos.

EVENT PHOTO 2017.5.4 Changing Realities at the Borderv3

Video, Audio

May 4, 2017

Recognizing Changing Enforcement and Crossing Trends at the U.S.-Mexico Border

In the midst of efforts to further ramp up enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border even as illegal crossings are a fraction of what they were at their peak in 2000, MPI research sketches the changing realities at the border and offers data that should help inform the policy debate. As the Trump administration and Congress consider constructing a border wall, adding thousands of Border Patrol agen

Recent Activity

Commentaries

March 2021

Hampered by the Pandemic: Unaccompanied Child Arrivals Increase as Earlier Preparedness Shortfalls Limit the Response

The increase in unaccompanied child arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border in February and March has led to backups and overcrowding at U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities ill-suited to house children, in part due to earlier significant reductions in Office of Refugee Resettlement shelter capacity during 2020. This commentary explores preparedness shortfalls and the options the Biden administration has moving forward.

Commentaries

February 2021

Biden Administration Is Making Quick Progress on Asylum, but a Long, Complicated Road Lies Ahead

The Biden administration's challenge to dismantle Trump-era barriers to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border is akin to fixing a plane while flying it. This commentary examines actions taken to date and articulates a series of steps that could help establish an effective, humane asylum system that works in tandem with border management goals and efforts to reduce the drivers of migration through regional migration management measures with neighboring countries.

Articles

February 25, 2021

Legal Snags and Possible Increases in Border Arrivals Complicate Biden’s Immigration Agenda

President Joe Biden has grand ambitions to reshape the U.S. immigration system, but his administration has run into early stumbling blocks in rolling back the strict enforcement regime of his predecessor. Administrative resistance, a tangled web of legal agreements signed by the Trump administration, and anxieties about a possible uptick in immigrants and asylum seekers at the border have posed early challenges to Biden’s agenda.

Articles

February 11, 2021

Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States

Have a question about U.S. immigration trends and the country's immigrant population? This article collects in one place the most sought-after information about the world's largest immigrant population and how it has changed over time. Drawing from a wide array of authoritative data sources, this article provides an up-to-date snapshot of the immigrant population, visa and enforcement statistics, and information on emerging trends, including slowing immigration and changing origins.

Video, Audio

February 5, 2021

A Way Forward on Migration Under the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union?

With Portugal assuming the EU Presidency in January 2021 and prioritizing progress on the EU Migration and Asylum Pact, this webinar features senior officials from the European Union, Germany (the last holder of the presidency), and Portugal to take stock of where conversations on the pact stand and Portugal’s plans for taking forward the negotiations.

Articles

January 27, 2021

Biden Sets the Stage for a Remarkably Active First 100 Days on Immigration

The Biden administration has set the pace for what could be the most active first 100 days on immigration policy by any White House in recent memory—even that of predecessor Donald Trump. The efforts, which represent a dramatic break from the Trump administration's view of immigration as threat, are likely to meet stiff opposition on Capitol Hill and elsewhere. This article evaluates Biden's early actions and what they suggest about the White House's ambitions on immigration.

Expert Q&A, Audio

December 17, 2020

Moving Beyond Pandemic: Could Curbing Globalization Prevent Future Pandemics?

Pre-COVID-19, we lived in a hyper-global world. There were 1.5 billion international tourism trips annually, nearly 40 million flights, and 272 million international migrants. This raises a provocative question: Does international mobility contribute to the spread of pandemics? In this episode, we speak with Michael Clemens and Thomas Ginn of the Center for Global Development. Drawing on their research of global pandemics dating as far back as 1889, they make the case that limits on cross-border mobility delay the arrival of pathogens by a matter of days at best.

Reports

December 2020

Construcción de un nuevo sistema migratorio regional: Redefiniendo la cooperación entre Estados Unidos con México y Centroamérica

Un desafío y una oportunidad clave que enfrentará la administración de Joe Biden será cómo abordar la cooperación regional en relación a la migración. Este informe explora la evolución de la movilidad entre los Estados Unidos, México y Centroamérica y presenta una estrategia para ampliar las oportunidades en cuanto a la migración legal, abordar necesidades humanitarias, fortalecer la aplicación de la ley y mitigar algunas de las fuerzas que provocan la emigración.

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Border Security

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"Border security has been significantly strengthened in all its key dimensions."