How Can Politicians Address the Crisis at the Southern Border?

What’s causing the recent spike in illegal immigration, and how can politicians address the problem?

For Context: Border Patrol’s encounters with illegal border crossings have sharply risen since the summer, and the immigration court system reportedly has a backlog of over 3 million cases.

Legalize Immigration: A writer in the Daily Beast (Left bias) attributed immigration issues to “restrictionist policies” that make it difficult for migrants to enter the country legally, which then fuels calls for stricter policies. “Immigration restrictionists create the problems and then demand ever more restrictions to fix them. Lather, rinse, repeat.” The writer pushes for increased legal pathways for migrants to enter the country, concluding, “Let people come and work legally and contribute to this great country, just as immigrants have for centuries. That’s the border plan of America’s founders. It was our tradition for most of our history.”

Unsustainable Regulations: A writer in the National Review (Right bias) blamed “unsustainable” regulations enacted by the Biden Administration on American farmers as causing an increase in illegal immigration. These regulations increase the pay and paperwork required for farmers to hire seasonal workers, leading some farmers to bypass these regulations by hiring illegal immigrants to fill these roles, which the writer determines leads to an increase in illegal immigration as it becomes known that this additional work is available. The writer concludes that the process of hiring seasonal workers must be streamlined, concluding, “anything would be better than Biden’s current policy of exacerbating a national crisis.”