Keri Ramirez

Enid
1532

What does Mexico and Canada do to people who enter their country illegally?

This paper will discuss the difference between how Canada and Mexico
handle immigrants. I researched what to do to get a valid stay in their countries as
well as the illegal stand point of entry. I found it amazing how different they were as
well as what the United States does. Immigration is defined as the act of coming to
live permanently in a foreign country. The act becomes illegal once you avoid the
tasks of obtaining citizenship by the steps the country provides.
In Mexico they have a streamline law which they expect you to abide by
(Waller, 2006). The officials believe that if you are in the country it should be in a
legal matter. They believe you should sustain yourself in an economic matter. This
would mean that you come there and find work within a reasonable time frame. You
are to be in that country without being a burden on their current society. In order to
be a candidate you are to be of good character and have no criminal record. You are
also to contribute to the nations well-being.
The officials also ensure that that as an immigrant you are to record any
foreign visitors as they visit and as they leave. They make sure you have not
violated any status. As an immigrant you are banned from interfering with the
countrys politics. If you are housing someone under false pretense you are
imprisoned. All of these things are guidelines that if followed maintain a smooth
rode to immigration. However if they are not followed as guided you are punished.
The punishments of illegal immigration in Mexico are serious (Seper, 2010).
On your first attempt of entering illegally you are subject to a felony charge and up
to two years in jail. If you choose to reattempt you are looking at ten years. If you
violate your visa you can serve up to six years. If you are a person hiding someone
who is illegally in Mexico you are considered a criminal and will be dealt with by
prison or fine. Of course with each person that is caught and not necessarily
punished by fine or prison time they are deported to their original country.
In Canada they have a similar streamline of laws in order to become citizens
(Smick, 2006). Their system is based on more of a points system. They use three
main categories: Economic, Family reunification, and refugees. When you are on the
economic system you gain points for you level of education. You are also allotted
more points if you are fluent in language and skill level for employment. If you are

trying to gain citizenship through family reunification it is only allowed for one
descendant. Meaning you must have at least one parent that was born there and
still continues to live there in order to obtain. During the time of 1990 to 2002 there
were 49% of the immigrants there for economic, 34% for family reunification, and
13% for those labeled as refugees.
In Canada you are normally caught by being an undocumented employee or
applying for health care or welfare programs. Once you are detained for illegal
immigration you have several types of sanctions. They would be 50,000 dollars and
up to two years if you are committing a crime. If you are indicted you could pay up
to 10,000 and six months in jail. Of course the main sanction is deported to original
country. If you are hiding ten or more illegal immigrates you could face up to one
million dollar fine and life in prison.
Has you can see the Canadians and the Mexicans have some similar
requirements as well as sanctions. When we look at what the United States does to
illegal immigrants we would find the following sanctions. The authorities will detain
for up to 48 hours and then they have the choice of deportation. However if you
look at the statistics you will see that the United States does not follow through with
many deportations. In 2012 we had 720,000 illegal immigrants that should have
been deported but only 195,000 had charges filed in order to do that. The United
States does not charge a fee or put in prison like Mexico and we give illegal
immigrants the option for welfare unlike Canada.
A research project showed that the United States had 870,000 immigrants
here that refuse to leave and of those 68,000 had a criminal record that we were
aware of. In 2014 Canada had 447,731 apprehended and of those 47,000 had
criminal charges. I was not able to find the numbers for Mexico. By allowing
immigrants with criminal charges to come into our country we are increasing our
crime rate and putting people who do abide by the law in a position to be affected
or victimized.
You then need to put into perspective why people want to come to the United
States. If they are coming from Mexico they are coming from a country that has
weak unions, inefficient tax collection, and a surplus amount of guns (Olmstead,
2010). You add that to the drug cartels and the fact that most of the police are
either afraid of the criminals or being paid off it does make you want to get out fast.
Most immigrants from Mexico are in it for the economic advancement. They are
truly trying to make more money to better themselves or their families. However if
you are working and sending the money back home you are not contributing to the
economy that is helping you advance. Reasons to leave Canada you have the drive
for better jobs and health care. However Canada does have a high rate of terrorists
and they do not consent with a no fly list. Since 9/11 this has been a large concern
for United States and being able to have a no fly list helps. Besides being high in

terrorists Canadians are big on human trafficking which is not something we need
affecting the USA.
The process of being able to come to one of these countries is different as
well. In Mexico it is set up to be well documented but applying for a visa has a
waiting process of months, while Canada can be done almost instantly at check
points. In America there is several ways to be able to enter but each step takes a
certain process. You are approved to be an immigrant by six different ways. Family
based is when you have a member of the family who is a resident of USA and you
bring one who is not to visit you. This is normally for a short period of time. Like
Mexico it is documented however we do not enforce the length of time and follow
up. Employment based is where you come to America just to work. This is given
either a temporary or permanent immigration. Then you have refugee and asylees,
Diversity visa programs, humanitarian relief, and us citizenship. So where America
has several options to choose on ways to legally be here we still do not enforce it
when they do not comply.
As I wrote this paper I was very frustrated with how America handles this
problem. We should not be providing services to people who are not adding value to
our society. I do not agree that people shouldnt be allowed to try to better
themselves either. Most people are draw to other countries for the freedoms or
promises that are highlighted with others. Those freedoms do come with a price
though and that price is hard work and standards. I think if you chose to come over
it should be monitored like Mexico and we should enforce the time frame. If your
time is up you are deported no questions asked. The standards for becoming a
citizen are not easy but neither is living in some of the areas you are escaping to
get here. If you do let them get away with exceeding the time frame we are
essentially saying that our laws are just guidelines and they do not matter. This is
not good when so many of the people we allow to come here are carrying with them
a criminal record. I do like that Canada catches illegals by undocumented workers.
We have this law that implements a fine but again we do not check into it. Therefore
it is an empty threat. This is a problem that we cannot stop but we should be able to
reduce to less than the 870,000 that refuse to leave. I asked several friends how
they felt about this subject and the common opinion was that we allow people to
come here and take our jobs and our services without expecting anything in return.
If you owned a business you would not pay an employee without work so why are
we giving out services like welfare to people who are not providing back into our
economy? This paper educated me on what is ideal but it needs to be enforced
otherwise its just words on paper.

Works Cited
American Immigration Council. (2014, March 01). Retrieved from How the United
States Immigration System Works: A Fact Sheet:
http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/just-facts/how-united-states-immigrationsystem-works-fact-sheet
Jedrychowska, E. K. (2010). A Tale id Two Borders: Immigrants to the US find Sharpyl
DIfferent Standards in North and South.
Olmstead, M. (2010). Border Stories: Canda vs. Mexico. The World Post.
Seper, J. (2010). Mexico Laws. Washington Post .
Smick, E. (2006). Canada's Immigration Policy. Council On Foreign Relations.
Waller, J. (2006). Mexico's Immigration LAws: Let's try it here. Human Events.