If you haven’t seen “Food Inc,” it will open your eyes to the underlying reasons why the U.S. is dealing with an 11 million illegal immigrant population. It’s not just a matter of porous boarders. It’s U.S. economic policies.

For decades, the federal government has provided subsidies to our farmers. The original intent of the subsidies was two-fold: to hold down food prices to the consumer and to support family farms. However, that policy has had unintended consequences which are costing Americans more than they bargained for.

First, the subsidies cost the American taxpayers additional tax dollars which means that while food prices are kept low, higher taxes to support those subsidies wipes out the savings in food prices.

Second, most of the subsidies go to multi-million agri-businesses: corporate-owned farms. Very few farms, which receive a federal subsidy, are family farms. As a result, most of these taxpayer subsidies go to huge corporations. The subsidies, originally intended decades ago to support family farms, have become another form of corporate welfare.

Because of the subsidies, the cost of food production is actually less than what it would cost a farmer to grow the food. In other words, the subsidies offset the loss of growing food products as the selling prices are kept artificially low. While these artificially low prices seem to help American families, they have had a devastating effect on Mexico.

Following the passage of NAFTA, American agri-businesses began exporting to Mexico our cheap food products, particularly corn. Mexican farmers are unable to compete with the cheap U.S. grown products, driving these farmers out of business and causing them to lose their farms. Unable to support their families, these farmers head to the U.S. border to find work.

To make illegal immigration worse, U.S. agri-businesses, the documentary points out, are actively recruiting in Mexico. Posters and signs have been distributed throughout Mexico, advertising jobs in the U.S. The signs state, come to the U.S. and we’ll hire you. Of course, desperate Mexican workers, seeking to support their families, take hope for a job from these recruiting efforts. Even a low-paying job in the U.S. is better than no work in Mexico.

Right now, the U.S. immigration policy is to punish the Mexicans for crossing the border illegally. The real solution, though, to illegal immigration is changing our own economic policies that foster and support illegal immigration. Until the U.S. recognizes it created the increased illegal immigration through its economic policies, illegal immigration will continue to be a problem.