POLITICAL COLUMN

President Trump campaigned heavily for a border wall along the U.S. southern border with Mexico to thwart illegal immigration. Trump signed an executive order authorizing the construction of the border wall. It also addressed certain immigration topics such as sanctuary cities who shelter illegal immigrants within the U.S. To pay for the wall, he proposed a 20% tariff on Mexican goods imported into the U.S.

In all honesty, the wall is a huge waste of money. Illegal immigration might decrease some but there will always be another way (such as staying in the country after a work VISA expires). A lot of people likely don’t agree with the wall, but their tax dollars are being used for the construction, maintenance, and staffing of the wall possibly against their will.

According to Business Insider, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stated that the wall will likely cost between $12-15 billion USD, other sources project $20-30+ billion. Along with materials, manpower, infrastructure construction and rerouting of current roads, and future staffing (armed border patrol agents per shift) will begin to make the already enormous bill grow.

There are pros to having the wall though. The construction of the wall will create temporary jobs, it will create permanent U.S. Customs/Border Patrol jobs, it will create a sense of security for people who think that all illegal immigrants are criminals, rapists, etc… I think that’s about how far it goes though. I genuinely think the wall is showing the rest of the world that we’re afraid and we want to isolate ourselves from other countries (even our allies), which could turn into a rallying call for terrorist groups like ISIS.

Honestly, we shouldn’t build the wall. Instead, we should just invest more money into more effective forms of border/immigration control. More people patrolling the border, more surveillance cameras watch the border, and we need to try and keep better track of visa holders within the U.S.