This TED Talk features immigration policy analyst David Beer, recorded live at TED Salon, Border Stories 2019.

By October 2018, Juan Carlos Rivera could no longer afford to live in his home in Copan, Honduras.

As the Dallas Morning News reported, a gang was taking 10% of his earnings from his barbershop. His wife was assaulted going to her pre-K teaching job,

and they were concerned about the safety of their young daughter. What could they do? Run away? Seek asylum in another country?

They didn't want to do that. They just wanted to live in their country safely. But their options were

limited. So that month, Juan Carlos moved his family to a safer location, while he joined a group of migrants on the

long and perilous journey from Central America to a job, a family member said, was open for him

in the United States. By now, we're all familiar with what awaited them at the U.S. Mexico border. The harsher and

harsher penalties doled out to those crossing there, the criminal prosecutions for crossing illegally,

the inhumane detention, and most terribly, separation of families. I'm here to tell you that not

only is this treatment wrong, it's unnecessary.

This belief that the only way to maintain order is with inhumane means is inaccurate.

And in fact, the opposite is true.

Only a humane system will create order at the border.

When safe, orderly, legal travel to the United States is available, very few people

choose travel that is unsafe, disorderly, or illegal.

Now, I appreciate the idea that legal immigration could just resolve the border crisis

might sound a bit fanciful.

But here's the good news.

We have done this before.

I've been working on immigration for years at the Cato Institute and other think

tanks in Washington, D.C. and as the senior policy advisor for a Republican member of Congress

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