It’s no secret that President Trump has had some unpopular ideas, but the U.S.-Mexico border wall may be one of the most controversial in a long line of hair-raising campaign promises.
Trump recently signed an executive order to begin designing and constructing a wall along our southern border, prompting U.S. citizens across the nation to protest. While its intended purpose is to stem the flow of Mexican immigrants entering the country illegally, erecting a wall between us and one of our closest allies is likely to cause more problems than it would solve.
The wall — which would stand at a towering 40 feet tall and cover an expanse of nearly 2,000 miles across — can be built to the tune of $15 billion to $25 billion, according to analysts at the New York City research firm Bernstein. Yet, the President maintains that the wall would cost roughly $10 billion to complete and that after an initial investment by American taxpayers, Mexico would be forced to pay the remaining unspecified amount.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has repeatedly rejected all claims that Mexico will fund the construction of the much-disputed barrier, resulting in President Trump’s proposal to impose a 20 percent tariff on all goods imported from Mexico. Nothing is set in stone, but if Trump succeeded in implementing such new trade policies, the American people would still be footing the bill because we are the ones buying those imported goods and paying the associated tax.
The issue of immigration is a point of long-standing political tension, but how serious is it, really? While it is hard to know exactly how many people enter the U.S. illegally each year, according to the Pew Research Center, “Since 2009, there has been an average of about 350,000 new unauthorized immigrants each year. Of these, about 100,000 are Mexican, a much smaller share than in the past.”
The Department of Homeland security also reported that in 2016, they and the U.S. Border Patrol had collectively caught 946,000 people attempting to cross the border illegally. The significance of these statistics are paramount because an earlier guesstimate provided by the Border Patrol had perpetuated a detrimental rumor: “for every person who is apprehended, three others successfully enter the country without authorization”—this could easily lead many Americans to jump to President Trump’s conclusion, but the numbers simply don’t add up.
The case could be argued that 100,000 unauthorized Mexican immigrants are still far too many and that a stronger, more secure border could only help. After all, there is a stigma that surrounds illegal immigrants, mainly for “taking our jobs” and being a “fiscal burden” on taxpayers. The reality, however, is that most undocumented workers are considered “unskilled” and are hired to do jobs that many Americans are simply unwilling to do at such low wages. In one self-explanatory article published in The Guardian, “Alabama immigration: crops rot as workers vanish to avoid crackdown,” one farmer documented a loss of at least $100,000 in unharvested produce due to anti-immigration laws, and couldn’t find American citizens who were willing to fill the vacant positions.
Any proposed solution to the “immigration problem” will increase our national debt and have its own set of consequences. The U.S. and Mexico are more than neighboring countries, we are strong allies in every sense of the word. Due to our close proximity and the North American Free Trade Agreement, we provide each other with countless goods and services that support millions of jobs and strengthen our economy. The Trump administration seems unwilling to adjust its immigration policy on the premise of preserving U.S.-Mexico relations, or for the sake of the Mexican people who come here in search of opportunity. Neither is any consideration being given to the negative impact these policies may have on Americans and our economy. Deporting the vast majority of workers who harvest our produce and increasing the cost of Mexican goods in an attempt to ease the fiscal burden caused by illegal immigrants seems contradictory.
Offering a path to citizenship would allow us to avoid costly expenditures like enormous walls and mass deportations (which according to Fortune magazine costs roughly $8,000 per illegal immigrant, and that’s assuming none of them are deported more than once).
Further, Fortune’s Mark Koba writes, “According to a 2013 study by the social action group Center for American Progress, if the undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States were provided legal status, the 10-year cumulative increase in the gross domestic product (GDP) would be $832 billion.”
With more than 90 percent of illegal immigrants already being apprehended at the border and 451,000 others successfully deported in 2016 alone, the situation just doesn’t seem dire enough to necessitate Trump’s not-so-great wall.