Essay: The Great Wall of America?

From 1965 to 2016, more than 16 million Mexicans have migrated to the United States in one of the largest mass migrations in modern history. While most of these people are immigrating peacefully and legally, some of them are sneaking through the border without becoming official U.S. citizens and are living in the nation as aliens. Even though, in recent years, the United States government has attempted to strengthen the nation’s border along Mexico, illegal immigrants are still finding ways to enter our country, which has only had negative effects on Americans. Examples might be the loss of U.S. jobs, a surplus of drugs, higher taxes for verified citizens, and increased crime rates in some cities. The government has done very little to stop the thousands of people becoming American “citizens” without proper documentation. As the newly elected president of the United States, Donald Trump should build an impenetrable, tall, concrete wall along the southern border of the country because it would enforce immigration laws better, all costs would be payed for by Mexico, and it would solve many problems that damage the American society and economy, such as drugs, violence, and other illegal products.
Constructing a 30 foot tall, concrete wall along the border between the United States and Mexico, would more effectively enforce immigration laws and would decrease the amount of illegal immigrants breaching our borders, which would overall boost the economy by allowing American citizens to have their jobs back with better working conditions and wages.
According to the Migration Policy Institute, it is estimated that 11 million unauthorized immigrants lived in the United States in 2013. Many illegals are finding open areas in our border fence, dig under or hop over it, or are finding other ways to sneak through security. By having a 30 foot high, concrete wall go 10 feet below the ground, new technological advancements such as drones and more border security, it would be much harder for illegals to get in through the southern border of the U.S. The border between the United States and Mexico runs from the Pacific Ocean all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. It extends 1,954 miles. While it cross through many largely populated areas, it also goes through go through ranges of mountains and deserts in California, Arizona, and New Mexico, and runs along the Rio Grande river on the border of Texas. The simple fences that are positioned along only portions of the border are able to be crossed by any able bodied human with access to a ladder or cheap pair of wire cutters. Donald Trump wants to change this by targeting the problem directly by “building a great wall along the southern border…And Mexico will pay for the wall”, stated by himself at one of his rallies. (Valverde, PolitiFact) Many criticize Trump’s promise as a “dog whistle” proposal to only gain support from “racist and nativist voters”. They believe Trump is using persuasive speaking to convince the population to stereotype Mexicans and to make these new migrants scapegoats, by blaming them the nation’s for the crime and economic problems. (Richey, Christian Science Monitor) On the other hand, many others believe an impenetrable barrier would protect the U.S.. Stated by the Washington times in 2015, Border Patrol estimated that at least 32,000 illegals immigrants were caught trespassing in our country near our border. Bobby Holden, special agent in charge of a county narcotics agency in New Mexico says, “I think a wall would only help.” Although Anti-Trump and backers of the Obama Administration have argued that our the border is secure enough, the percent of illegals coming from Mexico has risen 40% since last year and the supply of methamphetamine, which is smuggled from Mexico, is the cheapest its ever been. “A wall is a first step,” he says. “It’s a start.” (Richey, Christian Science Monitor) As the newly elected president of the United States, Donald Trump should work to try and build a wall that would be an impenetrable barrier for illegal immigrants that would not allow them to cross the border illegally. The wall would not have to run along the entire 2,000 mile border. In fact, it would only be half of that because natural barriers like mountains and rivers are already obstacles for people sneaking in illegally. The purpose of the wall is to be strategically placed so that illegals are not able to enter the U.S. where it is easy to disappear such as near cities, roads, or forests. Instead, by having a wall put up near these places, the immigrants are forced to try and get into the United States where it is almost impossible to cross, or is an easy place for border patrol agents to find them. By having not as many illegal immigrants let into our nation, American citizens all be able to have many of their jobs back. When these aliens come into our nation, U.S. employers lose them because they provide cheap labor and they don’t have to spend as much money on working conditions and housing. This is because the immigrants are so expendable and are willing to accept low wages because they are so poor. By these large companies in the manufacturing and agricultural business doing this, these jobs do not attract any Americans, forcing many to be unemployed in their own country. In Texas and California alone, more than three million jobs have been taken. (Federation for American Immigration Reform 2013) By building a wall to keep out the illegals entering into our country, we will bring back American jobs and have an increase in working citizens, which is what our economy needs desperately right now.
Having a wall along the Mexican border that would shrink the amount of illegal immigrants from coming into the United States would also slow down the stream of illegal substances and drugs into the country and decrease the amounts of gang violence and crime rates in areas like Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles (NPR News). The United States takes in 4 times more migrants than any other country in the world. Most of these migrants are coming from Mexico, some of those are doing it illegally. These illegals are fleeing their country and traveling to ours bringing drugs, crime, and illegal substances with them. You might say that some of these people are just fleeing all the trouble in Mexico and coming to the U.S. to start a new life. The question you should be asking is why can’t these migrants just enter the country legally and the have necessary background checks and documentation done so they can become official citizens? The answer is that most of the illegal border crossers are criminals who know they would not be a allowed into the nation and/or would probably be arrested. They are the ones who are trespassing to the U.S. to get rich by selling drugs where the demand is high. With drugs like marijuana, cocaine, heroine, and meth, they also bring human trafficking, gangs, and other forms of crime to American cities. Illegal aliens and other non-US citizens in our prisons and jails rights now have around 25,000 homicide arrests to their names. [United States Government Accountability Office, March 2011] There are also at least 2 million convicted criminal aliens now inside the country. [Center for Immigration Studies, Oct. 2013] Also, according to justice.gov,  Also, the economic cost alone that Americans have spent on drugs is gigantic, estimated at nearly $215 billion. Drugs are not only destroying the American economy, but it also our society, which directly affects you. My father is a death investigator at the Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office. Many nights at home, he informs me of his cases that he has to deal with. Most of the deaths are a result of illegal drug addiction. If you watch the news at all, you may see all of these people that are affected by drugs in their lives whether it be an overdose, homicide, or suicide. Most of the drugs in the United States today are shipped in from Central America, through Mexico, into the U.S. by illegal immigrants sneaking through our borders. By building a huge concrete wall along the border, we will keep out undocumented immigrants from coming into our country who may bring pounds and pounds of bad drugs that only cause trouble for us. We are losing money, lives, and beauty in this country because of these illegal aliens going back in forth from Mexico to America with out any sort of enforcement. By stopping them, we may also stop many citizens of the U.S. fro having access to dangerous drugs that are banned. The purpose of the wall is keep the evil people out of our nation, not the good ones. If you feel that a wall isn’t necessary, is racist, or is stereotyping Mexicans, take one good look at are own school. Last summer, the administration from St. Martin’s Episcopal School erected a 7-8 foot tall, black fence around portions of our campus, along with the addition of locked gates, security cameras, and barriers to keep trespassers out. Look as if school was the U.S. and the outside world is Mexico. We allow visitors to come onto our campus for free as long we know who they are, why they are here, and have the proper documentation (a visitors pass). All of the safety precautions are protection to keep out intruders who might wish to do harm to our school. We have a gate to let the good ones in, who are willing to agree to an identity check. Our tall, metal fence isn’t saying everyone out there in Metairie are criminals. It is there so that the people who are don’t have a away to get in, where as the people who aren’t do! The Trump wall has the same ideal, keep evil people out and only let good ones in.
Another reason that a border wall should be built in between the United States and Mexico is because Mexico will be forced to pay entirely for its construction, which would allow the United States to be able to spend it tax money from the citizens on other important issues, while also not having to worry about making any more additions to the trillions of debt that we owe to other nations.
Trump has said previously in interviews and debates that Mexico was definitely going to pay for the construction of the wall. Many citizens today question: Will this actually happen? The answer is yes. Outlined on Donald Trump’s website, this plan will be accomplished by putting pressure on the people who work in the United States but send their money back home to Mexico. Mexico’s rulers tell the poor people in the country that their poverty is the fault of the United States and how we have exploited them for years, creating a feeling of hated and vengeance against America. They are basically encouraging the poor folk of Mexico to come into our country and use every opportunity to benefit from our very generous welfare programs that our government offers to low-income citizens, created by the democrats. When these immigrants receive this government funding and their paychecks for working, they send it all back to their families in Mexico, which is estimated to be tens of billions of dollars each year, flowing into the Mexican economy. To stop this form occurring, Trump proposes that we start either imposing a tax on this transfer of money or we revise Section 326 of the Patriot Act, which forces financial institutions to make sure their customers are verified in order to open up an account. Trump has said that he would introduce a new rule that would revise a code of financial regulation that would not allow undocumented Americans to send money through wire transfers out of the country to Mexico. Trump says that a majority of all of this money comes from aliens living in the country illegally. If America were to revise this Act in the Constitution, Mexico would lose tons of money, and their economy would ultimately crash. There is one way that Mr. Trump would be convinced not to impose this new rule and that would only be if the Mexican president were to spend 10-20 billion dollars on the construction between this new border wall. This forces the Mexican president to make a decision. He is either going to have pay for the border wall upfront, or to refuse and have this law be revised, which would result in the loss of tens of billions of dollars each year for the Mexican economy. If he does indeed refuse to pay, along with this law revision, the U.S. would also remove all trade relations with them until they agree to put up the money. Mexico completely relies on their economic relations with the United States and could not function if we stopped trading with them or if we started to impose tariffs. According to CIA World Fact Book, the U.S. accounts for 47.3% of Mexico’s imports and 81.1% of their exports. This report shows that we have a large trade deficit with Mexico, meaning they are selling way more to us than we are to them; therefore, they are going to lose money from us enforcing these trade rules. Mexico needs access to our markets much more than we need to access theres and so according to Trump, “we have all the leverage” and “we will win the negotiation.”  This strategy would put Mexico potentially at risk for losing over 20 billion dollars each year and have the country virtually collapse, forcing them to have no other option but to fund this wall. With Mexico paying for the entire thing, the United States would be able to use its tax payer dollars in other areas besides immigration that need reform, such as in military, environmental issues, public construction, and the creation of new jobs by increasing trade and manufacturing. With this, the American economy will be boosted and the working class of citizens will grow.
Donald Trump has promised his supporters that he would build an impenetrable concrete wall along the southern border of the United States in between Mexico. He should continue to support the construction plan of this wall into his presidency because it would enforce immigration laws more effectively and stop immigrants from crossing our border illegally, which would slow down the flow of illegal substances and drugs into the country, decrease the amount of gang violence present in major cities, and because Mexico will be forced to pay for the building of this wall, the United States would not lose any money and would be able to spend its funds on other areas that need reform, which would allow our broken economy to be rebuilt so America can once again be a happy, prospering nation.