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Not only are the numbers of migrants entering the United States at the lowest levels in a generation, but they are now largely Central American. Four out of five border-crossers detained in South Texas are Guatemalan, Honduran or Salvadoran. They are driven by violence and poverty in their home countries and the desire for family reunification.

Alan Bersin

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Alan Bersin
Age: 78
Born: 1946
Born: October 15
International Lawyer
Lawyer
Brooklyn
New York
Home
Numbers
Borders
Detained
States
Violence
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Migrants
Country
Four
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Border
Five
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Largely
American
South
Entering
United
Poverty
Lowest
Family
Generations
Texas
Desire
Levels
Central
Reunification

More quotes by Alan Bersin

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The work the Mexicans are doing in terms of migration control on Mexico's southern border is crucial to our own border security.
Alan Bersin
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Until we have a legitimate labor market between Mexico and the United States, people will attempt to come here to work.
Alan Bersin
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To the extent that President Trump means strengthened border security, I am fully in favor of the idea that the rule of the law, secure borders and public safety should prevail. Drugs should not enter illegally. Migration should take place in accordance with lawful norms and secure and safe procedures.
Alan Bersin
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Walls and barriers alone are insufficient to insure security.
Alan Bersin
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The law change during the Bush administration gave the Department of Health and Human Services a central role in relocating Central American minors in the United States.
Alan Bersin
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People should remember that Mexican migration is now at a net negative. More Mexicans are leaving through deportation and voluntary return than are entering the United States legally and illegally.
Alan Bersin
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Homeland security is inherently transnational today. There's hardly anything adverse that happens in our homeland that doesn't have a cause or effect that's generated abroad. Increasingly, we must rely on our allies and foreign governments to share information and data to secure our country.
Alan Bersin
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In the last two years, the Mexicans have detained nearly 400,000 migrants whose intent was to come to the United States. The Mexicans return the detained Central American migrants by bus or by air to the countries they come from.
Alan Bersin
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Six million jobs in the US depend on trade with Mexico. Ten border states - six in Mexico and four in the United States - combined have the third or fourth largest economy in the world. Twenty-nine US states depend on Mexico as their primary export market.
Alan Bersin
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If you build a 50-foot wall, you'll soon be confronted with a 51-foot ladder.
Alan Bersin
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Our security in a global world must be looked at on a continental basis.
Alan Bersin
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Mexico now has the 13th largest economy in the world. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicts it will have a larger economy than Germany by 2042.
Alan Bersin
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We should be wary, particularly with our closest friends and allies, of breaking down the trust and confidence that lie at the foundation of relationships.
Alan Bersin
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The idea was to restore the rule of law, to bring order to a chaotic situation. The results became more and more apparent. Crime rates went down in the border region. Today, the number of migrants crossing is at a 30-year low. That's because of years of bipartisan work on this issue.
Alan Bersin
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People in our so-called Rust Belt have lost out, and politics and society have not been responsive either in providing the kind of additional support they need or to retrain them for jobs that are being created in the new economy.
Alan Bersin
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There have been enormous advances since 9/11 to build a very robust set of targeting procedures and watch lists to screen travelers coming to the United States. The National Targeting Center in Virginia run by Customs and Border Protection checks the background of every traveler who seeks to enter the country.
Alan Bersin
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As former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano pointed out, if you build a 50-foot wall, you'll soon be confronted with a 51-foot ladder. You need a strategy that involves layered defense: deployed patrols, sophisticated sensor equipment, and surveillance from the air. That is what has had a positive impact over the last generation.
Alan Bersin
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We can't defend the country by looking at the borderline as the first line of defense rather than as the last line of defense. We have to secure the flow of goods and people by engaging with foreign entities. We assure our security by securing the flows as early as we can before they arrive and as far away from our borders as we can.
Alan Bersin
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The image and the costs of a Berlin-like wall or a Great Wall of China is something that the American people have not accepted to date.
Alan Bersin
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The Mexican people are increasingly middle class, and Mexico has substantially become a middle-class society. This is true despite the significant poverty, and the class and geographic inequality that have deep historical roots.
Alan Bersin