Families detained, children separated from parents, millions of dollars spent: all because of the hopes for a better future for people trying to illegally enter the U.S. This is the American-Mexican border crisis.

The U.S. Mexican border crisis at the southern border has reached a low point that is officially out of control. The number of unaccounted children and families all trying to enter the U.S. illegally has gone up drastically since the January 20th inauguration.

At the moment, there is no border. There is nothing blocking people from attempting to enter the country, causing border facilities to become “stretched beyond thin, with profound overcrowding” per CNN.  “It’s definitely a problem because the immigration is out of control, and the immigration centers are being overwhelmed at the border,” junior Nick Jayner said. 

Between 2016 and 2020 during the Trump administration, there was a decrease in illegal immigration due to the border wall and rhetoric President Donald Trump used about immigrants trying to enter the country illegally. When there were immigrants who tried entering the country during the Trump administration they were detained, sent back or, in the worst cases, families were separated and children were taken away from their parents. 

During the 2020 election, border security was one of the major issues each campaign focused on. Trump and his campaign were avid supporters of the “Wall,” which would be a wall that spanned most if not all of the Mexico-U.S. border. 

President Joe Biden campaigned on a more inclusive, easier-to-immigrate solution to the border, which would hopefully make it so that people would fill out all paperwork in Mexico, and then, once approved, they would come through the border to enter the United States. This plan has completely backfired. “The border issues we are seeing now have become a partisan politics issue. Rather than trying to find real solutions in a bipartisan way, both parties are unwilling to compromise and find a real positive solution to the issue,” sophomore Evan Geisner said 

After Biden was sworn into office, he assigned Vice President Kamala Harris to be in charge of fixing the border. Harris’ first big task as vice president was finding a solution to the border crisis. From the time she and Biden were inaugurated, it took her a little over five months to make her first visit to the border to see the issues that are going on.

As the border crisis continues, more and more Republican lawmakers have been making trips down to the border in Texas to witness first-hand exactly what is happening. While this is happening, the partisan divide back in Washington is continuing to cause major problems in the hopes of both parties to find sensible immigration reform or some type of temporary solution to help alleviate or end the border crisis. A good solution would be to reimplement the “Remain In Mexico” policy, which would make it so that all people trying to enter the U.S. would get their papers filled out and certified before coming through the border into the U.S.