I'm not entrenched on the topic...and the caravan has crystalized my concern.
The Caravan is like 4,000 people.
In FY 2018 there were almost 400,000 apprehensions.
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/usbp-sw-border-apprehensions
So you
caught 100 times the number in the caravan and have no idea how many slipped thru.
Glad to see your thinking is crystallized, the rest of us have been here for a while.
Something has to be done to interdict. I'd like to see a harder look at all the alternatives.
You don't have to sneak over here to pick fruit.
I'm not a Lawyer but you are so tell me where my perception of our system goes off the tracks here.
As long as you have a visa and an I-94 you can come here for six months at a time from Mexico. As long as you don't work for anyone for more than $500 you haven't triggered the employer's I-9 Employment Eligibility Requirement.
Round it out with a Taxpayer ID Number so you can send in the tax on your income and voila. You can pick fruit for 6 months as long as you don't work anywhere for more than $500 and pay your income tax and you haven't done anything wrong, the farmers who paid you haven't done anything wrong, nobody has done anything wrong.
And that's not a glitch in the system that's a feature.
We need swarms of people swirling around our agricultural areas
when needed they come from Mexico and points further south. Then they go back with all the money they made and improve their lives in their home countries, maybe buy a little plot of land themselves, grow some fruit.
But, the catch is they know you're here and then you can rack up violations if you stay too long. And some people come fully intending to stay too long, like forever. So they don't want us to know they're here.
Hence a 25 minute video of people streaming across the border.
Even if 99% of the people on that video were sneaking in to pick strawberries or do concrete work the 1% that could be wanted murderers or terrorists or gang members makes it unacceptable.
400,000 Apprehensions Fiscal Year 2018.