We’re now on Day 32 of the government shutdown. About 800,000 federal workers remain without pay, and it appears there’s no end in sight. President Trump said he was “proud” to shut down the government in order to fund border security in the form of a wall.
Here are 10 reasons why that’s just asinine:
1. Illegal immigration is going down
The Pew Research Center estimates that the number of unauthorized immigrants in the country fell to its lowest level in 12 years in 2016. The number of undocumented immigrants has been steadily declining since it peaked in 2007. In short, President Trump is trying to fix something that is already doing a good job fixing itself.
2. Most undocumented immigrants didn’t cross over the border illegally anyway
For 7 years now, more undocumented immigrants have entered the country on a legal visa and overstayed it than ones who crossed over the border illegally. A wall wouldn’t do anything to stop those people.
3. Even if illegal border crossings were the main reason for illegal immigration, a wall wouldn’t be a good solution anyway
This just comes down to basic mechanics. It’s often dismissed as a cliche, but the kind of person who is willing to walk hundreds of miles through the desert isn’t going to be deterred by a wall. Saws exist. As do ladders. And the President’s recent claims of wanting to build steel slats wouldn’t strike much fear into anyone capable of either digging or cutting through said slats.
4. Undocumented immigrants provide positive economic benefits
They pay into Social Security benefits that they never cash out on, to the tune of $13 billion paid in and only $1 billion paid out in 2010.
That’s not to mention that when you consider the children of immigrants and the taxes they pay, immigrants end up as a net economic benefit to the U.S. A 2017 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine said as much.
5. Mexico was supposed to pay for it anyway
It was one of the President’s signature campaign promises. “We’re gonna build a wall and Mexico’s gonna pay for it!”
Meanwhile people with a modicum of understanding of international diplomacy said, “Um, but how?”
The President gave multiple rambling explanations for how that was going to happen. First it was by taxing remittances by people in the U.S. to Mexico. Now, the President has switched his explanation for how they’ll pay. Now he says they’ll pay for it through savings the U.S. will incur through the new USMCA trade deal, which hasn’t even been approved by Congress yet. Needless to say, that’s not how any of this works.
But this all belies the point that if Mexico was paying for the wall, we wouldn’t need a Congressional appropriation for it.
6. A wall would cost way more than the $5 Billion the President is asking for
The amount of construction that a 1,000+ mile border wall would necessitate is hard to put into words. Just consider the fact that wherever you’re building a wall, you need to bring materials to do so. Some of these areas aren’t even directly accessible by roads. So in that case, you need to build a road to get there. Think about how long it takes to repair a mile of interstate highway, then extrapolate that to 1,000 miles in the desert.
Liberty Vittert at Fox News estimated it would cost more like $25 Billion.
So how long after this $5 Billion shutdown before the President is asking for more money because the wall isn’t even close to being finished?
7. The environmental cost and cost to personal property would be tremendous
In addition to the fact that a large part of the border is along the Rio Grande, so we’d just be putting a big barrier in the way of that, it would cause issues for endangered species. And it would be a massive construction project in an area that’s normally free of most human interaction.
On top of that, many people own the land near the border. Normally, you’d think small government conservatives would be against telling property owners that they’re just gonna take some of their land.
8. Shutdowns shouldn’t be used to settle policy differences
The political debate over the wall notwithstanding, the shutdown is having a real impact on peoples’ lives. Hundreds of thousands of people are about to go without a second paycheck in a row. National parks are being damaged because they’re left unstaffed. And this is all over something that is not germane to the people and things it’s impacting. A wall has nothing to do with the TSA.
9. Most people don’t want the wall anyway.
If the President were holding strong on something that had broad bipartisan support, that’d be one thing. But this is a controversial issue, and most people are not in favor of building a border wall.
Every House member whose district is actually on the border opposes building a border wall. And that includes 1 Republican.
10. Seriously, ladders
Just, ladders.
Ed On Politics 