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The immigration policy and terrorism
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The immigration policy and terrorism
The immigration policy and terrorism share a symbiotic bond that is difficult to decipher
due to the contentious nature of this particular issue. As expected, there is no straightforward
approach to understanding that question; however, one should consider the options and
possibilities. On the one hand, those who wish to decrease the immigrant numbers and tighten
borders often claim that open gates and insufficient control are threats that can be effectively
used by terrorists or other persons who should not enter American territory. They argue that there
are instances where the people involved in terror incidences have freely moved into the country
legally or have illegally moved in via immigration. The worry is that inadequate screening and
selection measures will allow the wrong type of pupils to access educational facilities, thus
endangering national security.
However, it must also be acknowledged that the overwhelming number of legal and
illegal immigrants are not engaged in terrorism or other forms of crime. Immigrants are involved
in criminal activities at a lesser rate than the natives of the host country (LIGHT & MILLER,
2018). In the recent past, many terrorist threats in Western societies have been conducted not by
foreigners in the course of the last couple of years but by homegrown terrorists. Additionally,
one must stress the fact that the threat of terrorism is indeed real and is changing all the time.
Some concepts associated with terrorism, like radicalization and recruitment, have clearly
illustrated how terrorist organizations can exist and reinvent themselves in the domestic and
foreign spheres. This underlines the necessity of more profound and multifaceted strategies to
combat terrorism apart from the immigration policy.
Thus, immigration policy and measures regarding security at the borders are appropriate
in the fight against terrorism, although they are not the only relevant factor. More to it is a
holistic concept of homeland security, intelligence management, countering radicalization in the
population, cybersecurity, and cooperation with other nations (LIGHT & MILLER, 2018). It is
also relevant to turn to the possible negative impacts of oppressed immigration policies.
Measures that are perceived as punitive and policies that are implemented ethnically or
religiously may lead to resentment and hence create room and space for radicalization of the
ethnic or religious groups of the population that is marginalized. Also, given that specific
policies may make it virtually impossible for people to come to the country legally,
Another component of recognizing the legal framework for America's immigration
policy includes allowing those already here illegally to be legally granted citizenship. It is
possible to establish equity and realism in the procedure, which will see the undocumented
immigrants obtain their legal stay in the countries in order that people can embrace and leave
those hiding to policy enforcement agents to concentrate on real threats and not law-abiding
individuals (Martinez et al., 2013). One must accentuate, however, that several professionals and
scholars claim that some of the successful counterterrorism measures are not aligned with the
immigration policy at all. These include recent measures against radicalization on the Internet,
integration, cohesion, and dealing with causes that create radicalization. When comparing the
contemporary threat picture, it is vital to understand that terrorism is an international security
issue. Internal terrorists, hackers, and possibilities of individual performers – these threats can
hardly be fought using immigration policies alone.
Border security and immigration enforcement are relevant in the bigger scheme of
national security strategy. It means that effective policies should be implemented to guarantee
that people who come to a given country pass all necessary checks and that law enforcement
structures of this country possess all necessary means and information to solve this problem
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(Martinez et al., 2013).In the end, there is no direct link between immigration policy and
terrorism, eliminating any straightforward causal relationship. Even if someone looks at
enforcement and processes for the observation of justice, one can state that poorly designed or
poorly imposed immigration policies can play a role in creating specific vulnerabilities.
However, it cannot be stated that immigration is the primary reason for terrorism. An analysis
that may be less reductionist acknowledges the fact that this phenomenon has dependencies with
a string of parameters, be it political, economic, social, or even ideological.
Conclusively, skepticism about the major trends in US immigration policy and the
approaches to border security as the primary means of preventing terrorism in the context of
homeland security appears to be warranted. It might be more effective to address the present and
future CT challenges with a strategy that maintains the roles of border security and
counterterrorism, community engagement, and cooperation with other countries. In other words,
by giving special attention to such policies based on the best available evidence and avoiding the
oversimplification of the issues, efficient practices for making society safer and secure alongside
supporting core values can be achieved hand in hand with acknowledging immigrants'
contributions to society.
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References
LIGHT, M. T., & MILLER, T. (2018). Does Undocumented Immigration Increase Violent
Crime? Criminology, 56(2), 370–401. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12175
Martinez, O., Wu, E., Sandfort, T., Dodge, B., Carballo-Dieguez, A., Pinto, R., Rhodes, S.,
Moya, E., & Chavez-Baray, S. (2013). Evaluating the Impact of Immigration Policies on
Health Status among Undocumented Immigrants: a Systematic Review. Journal of
Immigrant and Minority Health, 17(3), 947–970. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-013-
9968-4
