For many years and decades, people have always had issues about their territorial boundaries. Some have always had the desire to explore beyond their boundaries for varied reasons. Due to the different ways of living, culture, life style, tradition and beliefs to mention but a few, governments thought for measures which would control as well as facilitate the human movement

Immigration refers basically to movement of people goods and other resources from one point to another.  It can be internally e.g. from one town to another or external e.g. from one country or continent to another. This is usually due to various reasons as I will enumerate here. They include economic, political, social, educational or for any other reason that might entail one changing their location. This is usually done within set rules and regulations of various regions. Illegal immigration occurs when conditions cannot allow legal movement to take place leading to this desperate act also a crime.

This can be prompted by the need to protect oneself during civil strife, war or other forms of repressions in one’s country of origin including dictatorships, persecution (e.g. Christians in Somali), frequent abuse, genocide, and any other risk posed to civilians in these trying times.

Another reason for illegal immigration is reunification of families and this in various instances. Bi-national same sex couples seeking to live together more so in areas where resistance to their orientation is less have resorted to this (James, 1998:29-62).

Poverty also drives people out of their homes to foreign lands in search for better wages than those payable in their original countries. In most cases this economic push factor is what leads to illegal immigration. Poverty is further worsened by natural disasters and overpopulation in the mother country pushing out population in search for better jobs thus better wages. For example in 1994 the economic meltdown in Mexico during which the minimum wage in zone c (rural/agricultural) was US$3.02 per day as compared to US$5.85 per hour in USA during the same period (David, 2001: 59).

When the population exceeds an area’s carrying capacity over-population results leading to overstretching of available amenities e.g. water, electricity, food reserves, land, roads, health care e.t.c. As the world’s population expands most of this increase takes place in the less developed countries thus a higher number of illegal immigrants.

Illegal immigration exposes its partakers and the citizens of their foreign country to a myriad of dangers. Other than the danger of deportation other considerably more dangerous results have ensued case in point human trafficking for exploitation. Even after the end of the legal slave trade by some European nations even the United States, the illegal trade in slaves continues to thrive albeit at reduced levels. Due to poverty and the lure of paradise the west holds for most people in the less developed countries, it has been taken advantage of by traffickers to lure the citizenry of this countries into slavery. When they get to this countries they are forced to work as laborers’ in factories, some are forced into prostitution. Their status as illegal immigrants makes it difficult for them to access any form of help be it from the police who at times abuse them or social care e.g. medical care. Some of them do not speak the local language thus are even more vulnerable to exploitation. In some cases death has resulted during the transportation e.g. from exposure in the united states in the south western deserts during very hot summer seasons, suffocation in shipping containers at sea, in box cars: some have been killed by their transporters or even abandoned mid way when things get out of hand or police are pursuing. Some of the areas they cross at include porous borders like Mexico-United States border, Mona channel between Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic, Strait of Gibraltar e.t.c.

Illegal immigration is carried out by human smugglers and traffickers e.g. Snakehead gangs in mainland China, “Coyotes of the United States”. Other forms of illegal immigration occur e.g. when one overstays for whatever reason their visa.