The massive human caravan currently making its way from Honduras to the U.S. border and President Trump’s announcement that he intends to end birthright citizenship have once again exposed the fault lines in America’s handling of uncontrolled migration emanating from the Western Hemisphere. Yet for all the intensity conjured by our domestic debate over illegal immigration, there is surprisingly little discussion of what is driving so many people to attempt to enter our country at any cost—and what could be done to prevent this crisis from continuing.

Migration is not an inevitability. Millions of people from all over the world seek to make their homes in the United States because we remain a beacon of prosperity and opportunity. Yet many more would prefer to make a good life for themselves and their families in their country of origin. It is not a natural human instinct to abandon hearth and home to flee to an alien land.