People’s Thoughts and Opinion about the Border Wall

Donald Trump’s announced to the public in June 16, 2016 that he will run for 2016 presidential election. One of Donald Trump’s biggest platform is focused towards the immigration policy and the illegal immigrants. He promises the people that if he wins the presidential election he would “Make America Great Again” by reinforcing a better immigration law, strengthening the border wall, tax cuts, and many more. During President Donald Trump’s campaign, he told his supporters that Mexico would pay for the building of the border wall in the south. Later during his time in the office Mexico refused to pay for the wall and that’s where some of his supporters starts to doubt him and the wall. President Trump’s alternative is for the congress to give him five billion dollars to fund the wall. President Donald Trump have been negotiating with congress. In the article “Democrats reject Trump’s bid to negotiate on immigration for his wall” by Eliana Johnson and Burgess Everett states, “the president proposed a bill providing temporary protection for some undocumented immigrants along with other measures in exchange for $5.7 billion in funding for his border wall” but the democrats rejected it (Johnson and Burgess, 2019).

President Trump announce that he is going to shut down the government, and he did. With the shutdown it affected many American citizens who works for the government because they did not receive any paycheck for weeks and not able to pay for their bills. President Donald Trump pause the shutdown and later announce the border wall as a national emergency. With this move his wall will get build. With the border wall being a controversial issue today many American have put their opinion about why they oppose the wall and why they agree to it. Many people disagree to building the border wall between the United States and Mexico. The first reason why many citizens do not want the wall is because it would cost billions of dollars for construction and maintenance alone. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineers estimates that the border wall would cost 31.2 billion dollars and that alone covers 1000 miles out of the 2000 miles border line project President Donald Trump promised during his campaign (Bier, 2017). If President Donald Trump insist with his 2000 miles border wall, then the cost of construction of the wall would double to 62.4 billion dollars. With that much money to spend many Americans are concern that the government would have to borrow money, and it would add more to the national debt. The second reason is that the border wall could cause serious environmental damage. Many citizens who lives along the area of Rio Grande are concern about the flooding in the area once the border wall is up.

Flooding’s in the area would occur because the wall would block the flow of the river, and it will affect many residences in the area. In the interview that Matt Weiser conducted for Water Deeply he asked, “If the wall gets built, what are these border rivers likely to look like in the future?” and a citizen name Irvin replied “ it would have drastic and harmful effect on the rivers and streams along the border and the wildlife and communities that depend on those rivers and streams” (Weiser, 2017). This statement concludes that the border wall would affect not only the residences in the area but also the wildlife. For the wildlife who are in the area and depending on the river would have cause a great damage to them. Without water to drink they would not be able to survive in the wild especially during summer where it is hot. If the wall would block the flow of the river and flood the area it could kill wildlife animals. The third reason for the citizens to oppose the wall is that it would not stop any border crossers to keep coming here in the United States. Many border crossers can climb the wall effortlessly by getting on top of a truck or using a ladder for instance “One viral video from 2010 shows two women easily climbing an 18-foot steel bollard-style pedestrian fence in less than 20 seconds” (Bier, 2017). If climbing the wall does not work their alternative is to dig an under-ground tunnel. The under-ground tunnel is very concerning to many citizens in the United States because they are not only smuggling people but the illegal drugs at the same time “A wall would likely increase the rewards for successful tunneling” (Bier, 2017). The Border Patrol reported that they “found more than one tunnel every month on average” (Bier, 2017).

With all these statements it exhibits that the wall would not be very effective especially for the drug smugglers because they will always have a way to come across that border. Although some may oppose the building of the border wall but on the other hand there are other citizens who support the building of the border wall. One of the reasons why some of the citizens of America supports the border wall is that ranchers who have their land along the border line are very concern about their safety. According to Garrison Murphy’s article “Arizona Rancher Want Border Wall, Worry About More Border Patrol Agents on Their Land” one Arizona rancher named Ladd states “That’s how it is down here, if you leave your house for a day you’re going to get robbed” (Murphy, 2017). Another example is the “Angel Families” they are the families who are fighting for tougher immigration laws because they have been affected by illegal immigrants. According to the article “Angel Moms, Whose Kids Have Been Killed by Illegal Immigrants, Share Their Stories” by Hannah Bogorowski says that families “seeks to address immigration laws and bring light to their permanent separation from love ones” (Bogorowski, 2018).

One mother named Root shares the tragedy that her family have experienced, her daughter named Sarah was killed by car accident involving an illegal immigrant who was drunk and drag-racing (Bogorowski, 2018). These statements show the reason they want the border wall because they want to be safe and reduce crimes. The second reason is that without proper documentation the American citizens does not have a clue on what are the illegal immigrants’ intention here in the United States. One of President Donald trumps concern is that terrorist would use the southern border to come here in America without anyone knowing and importing illegal weapons to use for an attack. According to the article “Risk of terrorist crossing U.S. border into Texas is real – but low” by Eleonor Dearman states “a DPS assessment obtained by the Houston Chronicle gives the case of Somali Ahmend Muhammed Dhakane, who crossed illegally into Texas and was later found to be an active al-Barakat and Al-Ittihad Al-Islami member in an FBI fraud investigation” (Dearman, 2016). This conclude that anyone who comes here in the United States without proper documentation are putting many American citizens at risk. The third reason is that illegal immigrants are taking American citizens jobs and it is affecting the Unite States economy. Many U.S. employers would most likely hire illegal immigrants because they can pay them less than what they are required to pay an American citizen. Even though it is illegal to hire illegal immigrants there are still employers who hires them.

In the article “Illegal Aliens Taking U.S. Jobs” states, “the more that illegal aliens are able to take jobs in a sector of the economy, the less attractive the sector becomes to U.S. workers, and the greater appearance of validity to the lie that only illegal aliens are willing to take jobs in the sector” hiring illegal immigrant would affect the economy because Illegal immigrants does not have to pay for tax when they get their paycheck and If they do not pay then the government funds would not be enough to funds school, construction of the roads, and many more (40 years fair, 2013). Companies here in the united states would build to a different country like Mexico for cheap labor. With companies living the United States less jobs for American citizens and unemployment would rise. My sister and I immigrated here in the United States back in 2011. Our journey to coming here in America is though because we must go to the legal process to be able to come here or get permission to live here. In order to be qualified to get an interview at the American Embassy in the Philippines we must have legal documents NBI clearance, medical exam result, and passport. NBI clearance is basically a background check document that is very important because without it the security of the United States would be at risk. It shows that a person who does not have any criminal history that there is a possibility that the person does not have the intent to make a crime in the United States.

Medical exam result is another requirement because the United States is trying to prevent or be warn about any disease a person is carrying and is trying to come in America. With the illegal immigrants coming here the United States without a proof that they are healthy or that they are not carrying a severe disease could put the American citizens in jeopardy. Two years ago, my sister and I became an American citizen under our mother. My mom went through the legal process to be an American citizen she must learn the history of America, get interview, and must go to a citizenship ceremony. Since we are under eighteen, we are automatically American citizens and all we must do is to attend the citizenship ceremony. These are the reasons why I agree to building the border wall because if my mom can do it others can. Although some illegal immigrants may say that their situation may be different and that I can afford to pay for all the cost that is needed to get my documents done. On the other hand, they can afford to pay a lot of money to the “coyote” or “pollero” to help them cross the border illegally. My point is why waste their money on coyote's they can just use that money to get their legal documents done. The immigration policy would not be though if there are no people coming here illegally. It is very important to keep the people here in the country safe from the terrorist and other people who have bad intention here. Many people may not know that the airport is the same thing as the border wall. The airports are tougher because if they suspect something is wrong with that person they have to dig open that persons' luggage and if they found something that you did not declare they have the right to throw it away and charge that person with a minimum of four hundred dollars or even deport back into their own country at the same day. The government here in the United States is not only tough to the people of Mexico but to people in other country it may look like President Donald Trump is only attacking the people in Mexico but his not. Border wall is a great idea because it can reduce the some of the criminals who are trying to here in the United States.

Works Cited

Bier, David. “Why the Wall Won't Work.” Cato Institute, 10 Apr. 2017, www.cato.org/publications/commentary/why-wall-wont-work.
Bogorowski, Hanna. Angel Moms, Whose Kids Have Been Killed By Illegal Immigrants, Share Their Stories, The Daily Caller, 17 Sept. 2018, dailycaller.com/2018/09/17/angel-moms-stories-immigration/.
Dearman, Eleanor. “Risk of Terrorists Crossing U.S. Border into Texas Is Real - but Low.” The Texas Tribune, Texas Tribune, 1 Dec. 2016, www.texastribune.org/2016/12/01/special-interest-alien-apprehensions-rise-threat-r/.
Johnson, Eliana, et al. “Democrats Reject Trump's Bid to Negotiate on Immigration for His Wall.” POLITICO, 20 Jan. 2019, www.politico.com/story/2019/01/19/trump-government-shutdown-deal-1116049.
Martín, David Cook. “Why Trump's Wall with Mexico Is so Popular, and Why It Won't Work.” The Conversation, 10 Dec. 2018, theconversation.com/why-trumps-wall-with-mexico-is-so-popular-and-why-it-wont-work-70047.
Murphy, Garrison. “Arizona Ranchers Want Border Wall, Worry About More Border Patrol Agents On Their Land.” Arizona Daily Independent, 18 Feb. 2017, arizonadailyindependent.com/2017/02/17/arizona-ranchers-want-border-wall-worry-about-more-border-patrol-agents-on-their-land/.
Weiser, Matt. “Trump's Border Wall Could Have Lasting Effect on Rivers, Water Supply.” Water, News Deeply, 4 May 2017, www.newsdeeply.com/water/community/2017/04/24/trumps-border-wall-could-have-lasting-effect-on-rivers-water-supply.

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