“This looks very much like an election-year ploy,” said Wayne Cornelius, co-director of the Center of Expertise on Migration and Health at the University of California San Diego. He said it’s hard to believe that the president and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano “really expect deployment of the National Guard to deter would-be illegal entrants.”
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… However, there is no evidence that National Guard deployment impeded illegal immigrants, said Wayne Cornelius, director emeritus of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UC San Diego.
In Cornelius’ 2007 survey of potential immigrants, the National Guard’s presence on the border was cited as a major concern by just 5% of interviewees — “the same proportion who were concerned about being robbed en route to the U.S. by Mexican police,” he said. “That’s even more revealing because a majority of our interviewees believed, incorrectly, that the National Guard troops were armed and authorized to shoot.”
Obama’s decision, Cornelius said, “looks …

… In 2006, President Bush sent 6,000 National Guard troops to the border, including to San Diego.
Shortly after, Wayne Cornelius, who studies migration at UCSD, interviewed about 1,000 people in Mexico who were considering crossing to the United States illegally.
“The National Guard presence on the border was a major source of concern for just 5 percent of our interviewees. And it’s even more revealing because the majority believed, incorrectly, that the National Guard in 2006 were armed and, presumably, authorized to shoot,” said Cornelius.
Cornelius and a bipartisan homeland security analyst in Washington say sending the National Guard may buy political …

” … Being in a border city, this editorial page has never been enamored of the idea that the immigration problem can be fixed by building a wall or putting up a fence, and calling it a day. In fact, as has been pointed out by longtime border researcher Wayne Cornelius, formerly of UC San Diego, building walls often has the effect of sealing off immigrant communities and preventing the kind of cross-border migration that allows immigrants to go home. …”
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An op-ed by Emily Puhl, a current participant in the Mexican Migration Field Research Program (MMFRP), was published in the Des Moines Register. The op-ed cites MMFRP data to argue that increased border enforcement has not been successful in keeping undocumented immigrants from entering the United States.

CCIS Associate Director David FitzGerald is featured in several CBS 60 Minutes “web extra” interviews. The segments were shot for a report on the All-American Canal.
Illegal Immigration: The Hard Facts

Militarizing the Border

Border Control

” … But if you successfully frame any policy as part of national security, there will be a greater chance of passing it, said John Skrentny, a sociology professor and director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California at San Diego.
Such was the case in the late 1950s with the passing of the National Defense Education Act, Skrentny said. For years, people believed the school funding was a local issue and that the federal government should not get involved, even though campuses were struggling, the professor said. That changed when the Soviet Union launched its …

” … Political scientist Wayne Cornelius has found that notwithstanding increased border enforcement measures, eventual crossing success rates have remained consistently high (in the 97 percent range from 2005 to 2007), even for unauthorized immigrants who are apprehended by the Border Patrol. However, border enforcement strategies have increased smuggler fees and have pushed migrants to more remote and dangerous crossing routes. … ”
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CCIS Associate Director David FitzGerald was consulted for a recent Slate Explainer column about Mexican immigration laws.
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” … Just as in 2006, some Democrats are clamoring for immigration reforms, including easing pathways to citizenship, while Republicans are insisting that more security on the border must come first. Policy experts, meanwhile, say the outcome for immigration changes this year will likely be the same as back then: nothing. “I don’t see productive discussions on immigration this year,” said John Skrentny, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego. … ”
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