One Of Presidents Trumps Major

One of Presidents Trumps major campaign promises was to build a wall between the southern border of the United States and the northern border of Mexico. Trump has continually said that he would get Mexico to pay for the construction of the wall. Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto, has repeatedly told President Trump they will not pay for the wall. President Trump has therefore announced that he will proceed first with American tax dollars and then have Mexico “pay us back”.

Let us look at the proposed figures. President Trump initially estimated during the campaign that the wall would cost $12 billion, though the figure has soared since then. An internal report issued by Department of Homeland Security in February estimated that the wall could cost about $21 billion. A new report issued Tuesday, April 18, 2017 by the Democrats on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs put the cost far higher, at nearly $70 billion (McCaskill). When the original Secure Fence Act was passed, the 2006 legislation that called on Department of Homeland Security to build up roughly 700 miles of border security, Congress estimated the whole project would cost roughly $50 billion over 25 years. This kind of government spending is astronomical and a gross misappropriation of government funds. The massive increase in military spending only compounds the governments precarious financial situation. The only way he can achieve this is through tax increases, which was another one of his campaign platforms that he would not increase taxes, especially for the wealthy.

President Trumps says he wants to build the border wall to keep out illegal immigration and to stop drug trafficking by disrupting violent cartels. Thought these may seem like reasonable points, will it achieve its goal?

President Trump and his followers fervently believe that illegal immigrants take jobs from American citizens. While it is true that illegal immigrants do get jobs in the United States, these are mostly low paying, if not minimum wage jobs. These jobs may be great for younger adults just starting out in the work force, minimum wage is simply not enough to house and feed a family on. It has been proven that if you work a full time minimum wage job you will still live well below the poverty level. Illegal immigrants often have more than one job to make up for this deficit, while still paying taxes on those earned wages. If those low paying jobs were filled by American citizens we could possibly see a decline in the economic welfare of a general segment of the population.

President Trump said in his campaign about illegal immigrants from Mexico that “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” In fact, this is so far removed from the truth. Many illegal immigrants are looking for better living conditions and to simply to work for a living, most are “good people”.

President Trump believes that a border wall can stop the flow of guns, drugs and illegal immigrants across the border. The 700 miles of wall that is already in place have not made it any harder on cartels to establish control of the transportation of illicit goods.

While there are a few, a little over a dozen, official entry checkpoints along the border line. These entry checkpoints are heavily policed and highly controlled. The cartels would rather exploit theses checkpoints predictability and rationality than to waste resources to the open expanses of deserts and the barriers provided by rivers. The cartels keep a watchful eye on security at each checkpoint, which means they can observe and instantly respond to weaknesses, such as when inspections are relaxed to speed up the flow of incoming border traffic.

Cartels are ingenious and strategic in fine-tuning their behavior. Because parts are easier to hide and they have no serial numbers, making them almost impossible to trace. They have recently begun to smuggle only parts for weapons into Mexico rather than entire weapons.

The cartels know all too well not all shipments will get through the checkpoints on any given day, but such losses are factored into cartel calculations, and it’s still better than risking people and the products they smuggle to the unpredictable wilderness of the American Southwest.

President Trump has stated that building a wall on the Mexican border will prevent terrorists from entering the United States. There is no indication that any terrorists have ever entered the U.S. from Mexico. "The suggestion that individuals who have ties to ISIL have been apprehended at the Southwest border is categorically false, and not supported by any credible intelligence or the facts on the ground. DHS continues to have no credible intelligence to suggest terrorist organizations are actively plotting to cross the southwest border (Dylan Baddour)."

Many, if not all, terrorist activities in the United States are domestic in their creation. There are no signs that there has been foreign involvement in any domestic terror plans. Since the horrific events that took place on September 9th, 2011, more than 80 percent of those who were charged with or died while engaging in jihadist style terror activities in this country have been U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

Immigration is, an economic and social problem of supply and demand. To truly solve this dilemma, we must start by legalizing the undocumented population that is already here, also by implementing a multi-national system to make legal immigration easier, not more difficult.

President Trump can believe whatever he wants, though he can not invent his own set of facts. A wall would only give a false sense of security and a major economic burden on American citizens. It is clear that such an expenditure is not in the best interests of Americans. President Trump will build his wall mostly for political reasons.