The Lion's Pride Volume 9 (January 2018) | Page 31

be the temporary guardian for their three children should this happen to
their family. These legal documents “encompass everything from who
will pick up the kids from school if their parents are detained, to who
will buy plane tickets if the U.S.-born children follow their parents to
Mexico or Central America, to who will raise them if they remain apart
from their parents but in American schools” (Grabar). John Kelly,
Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, recently ordered the
prosecution and deportation of immigrants who aid in the smuggling of
children to the United States (Diaz). With the implementation of this
new policy among other factors, illegal immigration into the U.S. is at its
lowest point in 17 years. With the uncertainty of the course that
immigration policy may take under the presidency of Donald Trump,
illegal immigration has taken a sharp decline. Only time will tell if
illegal immigration continues to decline, but according to Michelle
Mittelstadt (spokeswoman for Migration Policy Institute), “at this point
it seems clear that would-be migrants are concerned about rising
enforcement not just at the border but within the United States”
(Valverde). Mittelstadt claims that since the recession, an improving
economy, education system, and lower birth rates on the other side of
the southwest border are contributing factors to the continued decline in
detentions in that area.
Concerning the millions of unauthorized immigrants, the countries
that most are emigrating from in descending order are Mexico,