Pro: Wall
Anonymous
Guest Columnist
One of the major key issues surrounding Donald Trump becoming president is his goal to build a wall on the southern border of the United States. This raises a lot of eyebrows in our country because numerous people are in support of it and numerous people are against it. Trump would like for Mexico to pay for the construction and maintenance of the wall. This is good because the illegal immigrant population is way too high.
Between 2013 and 2014, the foreign-born population increased by one million or 2.5 percent. Immigrants in the United States and their U.S.-born children now number approximately 81 million people or 26 percent of the overall U.S. population, according to migrationpopulation.org. They come into America without going through the actual process of becoming a United States citizen. I respect the people that actually want a better life and work to become a legal U.S. citizen, but not those who just think they can come over without permission and take our jobs and our benefits.
The wall will benefit our national security. Trump said, “A nation without a border is not a nation,” and I agree with this, ten-fold. I believe that our nation’s security is breached whenever an unknown alien crosses our borders. How can you call yourself a nation when you don’t even know who is coming into our country? Sure, they have border patrol, but let’s get real: it is never perfect!
Despite illegal immigration, the drugs that illegally come over into the United States would be cut down dramatically. The drug lords wouldn’t be able to make their money, and they’d eventually fizzle out. The amount of drugs coming into our country is plaguing our nation. According to drugabuse.gov, in 2013, an estimated 24.6 million Americans aged 12 or older—9.4 percent of the population—had used an illicit drug in the past month. This number is up from 8.3 percent in 2002. The wall can help with this.
Lastly, the border patrol that is constantly at work, are always overwhelmed with the number of illegal immigrants trying to make it into our country. In 2015, the Border Patrol apprehended a total of 39,970 unaccompanied children and 39,838 family units nationwide. In 2014, those numbers were 68,631 and 68,684, respectively, resulting in a 41 percent decrease in unaccompanied children and a 42 percent decrease in family units in 2015, according to the Department of Homeland Security website, dhs.org. It would decrease the flow significantly and help them do their job more efficiently. They’re there for a reason, and they should be able to do their job correctly and systematically.
So, in retrospect, I fully support this wall. Mexico should pay for it, and I believe it would benefit our country. And if you can’t tell, I’m voting for Trump because this wall is a good idea, and it will bring our country back to being the greatest nation on God’s green earth.
Con: Wall
Matt Cooper
Lantern Staff
“I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”
During his presidential campaign announcement last year, these are the words, which came deluging from Donald Trump’s mouth in promising to erect a border wall between the United States and Mexico.
This is a problem for a couple of reasons, some of which aren’t necessarily intuitive.
Such a form of immigration policy would surely be culturally xenophobic, impermanent and extremely expensive. Here is why.
In smaller areas of Kansas and the Midwest, there isn’t exactly an abundance of ethnically diverse community centers. So here, the building of a wall on the Rio Grande may come to reinforce cultural xenophobia as a societal norm.
And what of younger people who would come to be influenced by Trump’s ideologically dense immigration policy of building a wall?
Entire generations may come to grow up in a society where their leader stands behind a set of policies which would operate under the assumption that it is better to implement draconic sanctions that would stand to separate two countries rather than unite them under political compromise.
What of the cost? According to Newsweek, the construction of a border wall spanning the distance between Tijuana in the west to Matamoros in the east would cost somewhere between $10 billion and $12 billion. Another estimate from the Washington Post set a price tag of $25 billion.
From an economic standpoint, this would be a disaster and an embarrassment on the world stage. There is also no feasible way in which Mexico could or would foot the bill of any such project.
In multiple interviews with media outlets in recent months, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has outright denounced any idea that Mexico would ever support Trump’s idea of a barrier between the United States and Mexico.
In one such interview with CNN after a meeting with Trump toward the beginning of September, Nieto said, “I made it clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall.”
So without any support from the Mexican government, any attempt by Trump to build a wall along the southern border of the country would fall solely on American taxpayers.
Along with burdening American budget, any wall construction simply would not stand any significant test of time.
Historically, when walls have been constructed to separate foreign peoples, eventually they are torn down or no longer serve any purpose.
The Berlin Wall fell in 1989, The Great Wall of China no longer serves as a barrier between China and steppe invaders from Mongolia and the Roman Emperor Hadrian’s Wall no longer keeps Scottish Picts out of England.
So to would be the fate of any wall built to span the length of the Rio Grande.
