There was news this week that tourist visa overstayers to the country cannot be traced, are the right wing US immigration brigades then directing their energies at the wrong border controls?

Traditionally it is the Mexican border that receives the most column inches in regards to US immigration, with the figures showing that in fact half of the illegal immigrants in this country came in by plane, what hope is there to eradicate illegal US immigration.

The US policy to immigration is draconian to say the least, people found to be in the country illegally are often kept in prison-like complexes until deportation. Quite often these people have established lives for themselves in this country and have legitimate jobs where they pay taxes, ok so those legitimate jobs are obtained deceptively, the fact remains they were contributing to the economy.

The actual act of immigration is never going to be stopped in the US, mainly from under privileged countries, it seems however that a country built on immigration has turned it’s back on the hand that built it and no longer wants to play ball, feeling that it is now fat enough from foreign labor to possibly stomach anymore.

This is in stark contrast to our northern neighbours, Canada, that this week and every month as far as one can remember proposed new plans for the benefit of immigration into the country. Canada is currently seeing more growth and resistance to the recession than any other western country, while seeing some of the highest rates of legal migration.

Criminalising people for wanting a better life for themselves and their family seems a last ditch attempt by our government to hang on to its dated policies on immigration. If people are going to do it anyway, should some new laws be introduced or process be set-up to have some control, or at least structure, in what is meant to be one of the most developed countries in the world?

A person scales a fence at the Mexican border