At his turbulent his news event last Wednesday (I won’t dignify it by calling it a news conference), Trump reiterated that he will build a wall along the Mexican border. “It’s not a fence. It’s a wall,” he said, and“Mexico will pay for the wall.”
Here are six reasons why Trump’s wall is an even dumber idea than most of his others.
1.The U.S.-Mexican border is already well defended, and a wall won’t improve the defenses. The United States now spends $3.7 billion per year to keep some 21,000 Border Patrol agents on guard and another $3.2 billion on 23,000 inspectors at ports of entry along the border, a third of which is already walled or fenced off.
2.The cost of Trump’s fence would be a whopping $25 billion. That’s the best estimate I’ve seen. (When Trump discussed the cost last February he put it at $8 billion, then a few weeks later upped the cost to $10 to 12 billion. )
3.President Donald Trump has insisted that Mexico will pay for the wall, which he has said is necessary to stop illegal immigration and drug trafficking. But Peña’s comments suggest that the two countries remain far apart on the issue.
4.There’s no way Mexico will pay for it. On January 11, Mexican President Enrique Peña assured Mexicans they would not be footing the bill. “It is evident that we have some differences with the new government of the United States,” he said, “like the topic of the wall, that Mexico of course will not pay.”
President Donald Trump has insisted that Mexico will pay for the wall, which he has said is necessary to stop illegal immigration and drug trafficking. But Peña’s comments suggest that the two countries remain far apart on the issue.
5. The decline in the number of people migrating to the United States from Mexico is not due to an increase in border enforcement, but because Mexico is now producing fewer young people. In 1965, Mexico’s fertility rate was 7.2 children per woman; by 2000 it had fallen to 2.4; today, it’s at 2.3 children per woman, just above the replacement level.
6.There is little evidence that undocumented immigrants take jobs away from native-born Americans. In fact, a new analysis of Census data finds that immigrants take very different jobs than Americans. The United States already allows a significant amount of legal immigration from Mexico under the “guest-worker” program – 1.6 million entries by legal immigrants and 3.9 million by temporary workers from Mexico over the last 10 years – because farmers can’t find enough native-born Americans to pick crops.
Of course, Trump lives in a fact-free universe designed merely to enhance his power and fuel his demagoguery. But you don’t have to, and nor does anyone else. In order to make informed decisions, it is important to have access to accurate information. Unfortunately, Trump and his administration are doing everything in their power to suppress the truth. This is why it is more important than ever to be vigilant in seeking out the truth from reliable sources.
