Young man at the border fence attempting to return to his family. Photo by Karl W Hoffman

The Obama administration has already deported more than 1 MILLION people.

So I went to the border, not just a border crossing but the border between America and Mexico deep in the Sonoran Desert to personally ask an illegal border crosser, why?

The answer I got;  This young man said he had been working in a restaurant in Illinois. He has been in the US for over 15 years, originally coming across as a child with his parents. Juan (not his real name) has a wife and children he is supporting. He was stopped for a tail light out and arrested for being in this country illegally. Juan spent the next few months in a detention facility and then was transported to Arizona and deported at Nogales.  His entire family had to contribute to raising the $2,000 it would take to pay for the Coyote to get him back into the US plus travel expenses.

Separate the issues of drugs and criminal actions, forget your party or your stand on border security and immigration and lets look at this from a purely logical and objective viewpoint.  Lets forget that Juan is here illegally and how and why he got or came here and whither or not he should be here. It is a case of human nature and the bonds we adhere to.  Just the fact that a man or women is separated from his or her family and transported several thousand miles away in another country does not mean he or she will not return to his or her family.  This is who we are as people! Holocaust victims have spent their entire lives searching for their lost loved ones. Every one of us would do the same thing.

Taxpayers are going to pay for a public defender and the prosecution, plus the court costs, inflated incarceration fees, transportation and deportation, then of course for the family to go on welfare. The icing on this cake is that the Cartels laugh all the way to the bank with the family’s savings. So is deportation a great idea?

Even if one has no compassion for families being torn apart or the immense financial burden on U.S taxpayers, how hard is it to see some simple solutions that even a politician could understand?  Secure the Border by any and all means, and then repair the country through comprehensive immigration reform by whatever the citizens of the U.S deem to be fair and compassionate. I do have great faith in the humanitarian and civil rights directions that our country eventually takes but immigration reform will not happen over night.

There should be plenty of fodder for liberals, humanitarians and open border activist to keep them busy away from the border, anti government types can sign up for voluntary deportation, the Sierra Club has enough to do in their own back yard, and No More Deaths can concentrate on their Middle East projects, conservatives can quit worrying about the foreign invasion and the high cost of ammo, and the minutemen can go home and drink beer knowing they helped defend our country.  Did I leave anyone out? Oh yea, Russell Pierce and Raul Grijalva can please just fade away and empty the prison space can be used for a new reality show “Break Out.”

Karl W Hoffman

Documentary Film Producer

Freelance Photojournalist

Multimedia Reporter

Reporting from the field not the desk

For information on photography exhibits and prints, lectures, interviews, photo usage, border tours and to order the documentary on DVD and view Living on the Border documentary trailer please visit: www.skullcreekmedia.com