San Diego-Tijuana border 

The border between the United States and Mexico represents the sharpest divide in average income of any place on earth! About 85 % of all people who immigrate to the United States do so legally. About 33 % of the immigrants are citizens, and 50 % are legal permanent residents. Only a small minority of immigrants cross the border illegally; 60% enter with visas and become "illegal" when they overstay their visas. Most illegal immigrants are Asians and Europeans, not Mexicans. [Source: Bart Laws, "The Immigrant Wars," Z Magazine, November 1996, pp. 31-39.] Since 1995, the U.S. government has spent over 200 percent more on border enforcement while the estimated number of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. has increased by 57 percent! The presence of the U.S. international border creates illegal immigrants. People within Mexico move around the country and especially to large urban centers and to the USA border for jobs and a better standard of living. This is called internal migration. But when they continue this process across the USA border without "proper" papers, they become illegals. Ironically, almost all the illegals seek jobs in the former Mexican territory (US-Mexican War, 1846-1848), which are now called California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. The San Diego-Tijuana border crossing is the busiest in the world. In 1997, 56 million people and nearly 1 million trucks crossed into San Diego from Mexico (the southbound traffic is not counted). Examine border issues in San Diego. Look at this portion of the border in March 2005.

Tourists and visitors from the United States cross the border here and elsewhere for a few distinctive reasons: Mexican culture (e.g., food, alcohol, and bullfights), gift shops in Acuna, Mexico, or stores in Tijuana, Mexico sex and prostitution (e.g., in Juarez, Mexico); medical services, such as cheap dental care and prescription drugs (e.g., in Mexican cities, such as Tijuana (south of San Diego) and Nogales (an hour south of Tucson), where up to $2 billion per year of prescription drug are bought by U.S. consumers.

Created by Ingolf Vogeler on 11 June 1997; last revised on 05 April 2005.