Washington, D.C. (June 6, 2023) – “Gatekeeper countries” are the states that illegal migrants have to pass through on their way to their destinations. For the United States, that means Mexico and Central America, while for Europe, that role is filled by Turkey and North Africa.

A new paper from the Center for Immigration Studies argues that cooperation with such gatekeepers is essential if destination countries are to successfully limit illegal border crossings.

The paper, by Viktor Marsai, director of the Budapest-based Migration Research Institute and visiting fellow at the Center, argues that Europe has pursued such cooperation more systematically than the United States, and that has helped it do a better job in limiting illegal immigration.

Cooperation with gatekeeper countries is not totally unfamiliar to the U.S.; the Remain in Mexico program, for instance, was just such a policy. But Marsai argues that “cooperation with transit countries is still far from being an integral part of U.S. immigration policy, as it is for the EU.”

The paper makes clear that collaboration with gatekeeper countries is not a silver bullet; it is not sufficient to border control but it is necessary. Marsai says U.S. policymakers need to “recognize that border fences and patrols are not the first line of protection, but should be the last.”