How the U.S. Can Improve Legal Immigration

First off, it is ridiculous to criminalize just showing up at the border. Crossing it illegally is one thing, but people should be able to arrive at a 'processing station' without fear.

What is a processing station? Instead of just putting up more and more fences and sending more and more guards, they should strategically place small buildings at points known as high traffic entry points. At those points, people seeking to enter can be in a 'safe zone' they are not in the country illegally, but are not just wandering around either.

These processing stations can allow people to apply for legal entry and be staffed by agents with authority to do background checks, make contact with trustworthy employers seeing if there is legal work available for such immigrant workers, offer a resting place, bathroom to clean up, water, etc...

They can still turn people away, but they can be more humane about the conditions undr which these encounters happen.

These border guards can pick up people trying to sneak through and take them to the closest processing station to go through the system like everyone else.

Having these processing stations right on the border, people can still have hope of getting in to better their lives, they can know they don't have to die of exposure to the elements to get there and they don't have to be branded as a criminal just for trying.

The U.S. benefits by having better security, a more controlled and better managed entry system and continues to be a beacon of hope.

Will the government do this? Not likely. It's one thing to talk about making things better, but actually doing it isn't what most politicians are about.