Silence and the Second Wall

While the Trump administration has made the construction of a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border a key policy goal, some experts argue that his bureaucratic efforts to stifle migration have been just as effective as any physical barrier. “Silence and the Second Wall,” published in the Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal, suggests that changes to agency procedures and the imposition of bureaucratic barriers have effectively created a “second wall” barring the admission of otherwise legal migrants. By tracking the historical evolution of the U.S. immigration system and incorporating both policy analyses and case studies, the authors establish how new procedural hurdles and rule changes decrease institutional accountability, prolong immigration proceedings, increase costs for maintaining the system, and inhibit migrants from fully integrating into American society or even blocking them altogether. When investigating why protests to the second wall do not compare to the outcries over the physical wall, the study suggests that the lack of institutional integrity and transparency obfuscates the public from perceiving the second wall’s impact on the operation of the immigration system. The authors assess the current forms of “resistance” to these obstacles, such as the sanctuary movement, and recommend they be strengthened by, for example, mounting legal challenges in individual cases; structural reforms, including a bigger budget for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; and increasing public pressure on government for greater accountability. (Monica Leon for The Immigrant Learning Center’s Public Education Institute)

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