'Don't Militarize The Border,' Says Immigration Bill Critic

Mexican journalist and Univision news anchor Enrique Acevedo argues in an opinion piece for ABC that the U.S.-Mexico border is already one of the most intensely patrolled places on earth, and adding $30 billion dollars to increase patrols and fencing there, as the U.S. Senate wants to do, is a bad plan.

Senate passage of historic immigration legislation, which would double the number of border control agents and add 700 miles of new fencing, cleared a key hurdle yesterday.

Acevedo, 35, writes:

Over the last two decades billions of dollars have gone to waste trying to stop the flow of undocumented immigrants, mainly through the Southwest portion of the border. On the other hand, migrant deaths have steadily increased since the mid 1990's while human trafficking organizations, mostly run by Mexican drug cartels, have seen a boom in business.

Rather than viewing border enforcement as part of a broader strategy, border enforcement became the only strategy to stop undocumented immigrants from coming across the border. This security-based approach has led to a degradation of the quality of life for once dynamic border communities as well as grave human rights violations.

A final vote in the Senate later this week would send the immigration bill to the House.