Trump’s building the wall – Immie Pearson
During his election campaign president Donald Trump promised to ‘build the wall’, along the US-Mexico border, what was really meant by this was that he was going to expand it, as of 2018 there was 700 miles of fencing in place, Trump wanted to expand this. The United States southern border with Mexico, is a 1,933 mile stretch, travelling from the Pacific Ocean to the tip of South Texas. The soul aim of this for Trump was to thwart illegal immigration.
In a 2015 interview trump said; “You don’t need a wall for the entire piece because we have wonderful people, Border Patrol people, that can do the job. But you do need walls in certain sections, without question.” (CNN) Despite seeming to change his mind on many aspects of the potential Wall his ideas about its length remain consistent at around 1,000 miles, Trump has made it clear the wall does not need to be built in certain areas as there are “natural barriers”, such as near harsh rivers. In Texas, there’s often no fencing at all. The Rio Grande and the rugged terrain around the river serve as a natural barrier.
So what will it cost? This is a number that seem to change over the years with every interview Trump took, in September of 2014 Trump put it at $4 or $5 billion, In 2015 $8 billion, then in 2016 in an interview he put the figure at “maybe $10 or $12 billion”. This only kept rising and Trump has remained clear he expects Mexico to pay for it, in a tweet posted on January the 18th 2018 Trump had this to say; “The Wall will be paid for, directly or indirectly, or through longer term reimbursement, by Mexico, which has a ridiculous $71 billion dollar trade surplus with the U.S. The $20 billion dollar Wall is “peanuts” compared to what Mexico makes from the U.S. NAFTA is a bad joke!”
The question remains as to wether this will actually, end up benefiting the US economically and socially, after the secure fence act of 2006 and the US-Mexico border wall was expanded (by approximately 548 miles), a Darthmorth-Stanford study (2007-2010), found that the expansion minimally reduced unauthorized Mexican migration and was largely harmful to U.S. workers. Despite construction costs of the wall of $2.3 billion or approximately $7 per person in the U.S, the study found that the border wall expansion harmed college educated U.S. workers by $4.35 per person and only benefited less educated U.S. workers by an average of 36 cents. Moreover the study found that the expansion only educed the total number of Mexican-born workers coming into the U.S. by only 0.6 percent, roughly 83,000 people.
Looking back at this raises the questions of wether this wall expansion will be a huge expense for a small result, with harsh ramifications. Melanie Morten, an assistant professor of economics and faculty fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) said “If the goal of policy is to reduce migration, it’s important to examine what leads people to migrate in the first place…..Mexican citizens tended to migrate to attain higher wages. The wall did not change that.” Trump seems to not not take motivation for immigration or past results into consideration, nor does he seem to see the immigrants as people or consider their human rights. This can be seen with the treatment of people caught attempting to illegally cross the border.
In December of 2018 two children died in Border Patrol facilities that were not designed to provide care for children, on the 20th of May 2019 a 16 year old boy, Carlos Hernandez Vasquez became the 5th child to die after crossing the US-Mexico border. Though Border Patrol’s own rules state that migrant children be released from the facilities and transferred to shelters within 72 hours, Carlos was detained for twice that length of time. What seems to worsen these tragic events in President Trumps evasion or responsibility and sweepingly ignorant statements backed up with no or very little ‘evidence’, such previously blaming Democrats for the deaths; “Any deaths of children or others at the Border are strictly the fault of the Democrats and their pathetic immigration policies that allow people to make the long trek thinking they can enter our country illegally,” the president tweeted in December. “They can’t. If we had a Wall, they wouldn’t even try!”
This shows a classic characteristic of Trump, he never addresses any criticism he is met with directly, merely takes the attention elsewhere, placing responsibility on anyone but himself. The sad truth is, Trump is pushing and will keep pushing this border despite the seeming signs pointing its negative outcomes but ultimately despite these deaths. What’s worse is his techniques of diversion and outspoken nature, means more people are spending energy getting angry at him, whilst those dying at the border are being forgotten, and it will keep happening unless there is a massive change.
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