Issues related to illegal immigration and smuggling in people are crucial to combat in terms of ensuring Homeland security. Modern development and availability of transportation along with other globalization trends call forth both huge immigration flows all over the world and eradication of smuggling-related crimes. Today total immigrant population of the U.S. is estimated to account for 13 percent of the whole population of the country, and it continues growing. According to the data, available from Center for Illegal Immigration Studies (2013), the number of illegal immigrant population in the USA exceeds 12 million. Despite the fact that majority of immigrants come to the U.S. due to economic reasons, they often continue facing lots of issues related to the lack of legal status, unemployment, lack of insurance and appropriate living conditions. Illegal immigrants come to the USA from all over the world, many of them come from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, China and Ecuador. The number of unauthorized entries in the U.S. is estimated to constitute half of all the entries. Many of those, who further become illegal immigrants, enter the USA legally, namely with the help of Border Crossing Cards.
Trafficking in human beings (human smuggling) is one of crucial issues with respect to security. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that almost 18 thousand people become victims of trafficking in the U.S. every year. Most wide-spread reasons for trafficking deal with forced labour and sexual exploitation.
Variety of federal agencies in the U.S. are involved in combating illegal immigration and human smuggling, namely the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Justice, police and even military forces. For the Representative it will be really beneficial to continue researching into illegal immigration and trafficking issues with respect to tracing effectiveness of coordination mechanisms, which link responsible agencies.
References
Center for Immigration Studies (2013). Official website. Retrieved 14 September 2013 from http://www.cis.org/
