In this paper, I will attempt to address the following questions about the border wall Trump has suggested we build, how effective would a wall be in preventing drug trafficking through our border? How much would it cost? Who will be paying for it? And finally, how will this affect illegal immigration (and in turn, our economy)?
First off, How effective would a border wall be in preventing drug-trafficking through the southern border? In order to understand how effective the wall would be in preventing drug-trafficking we must first understand how drug-trafficking works along the southern border. “The Mexican drug cartels make an estimated 19 - 29 billion dollars of revenue every year off of US drug sales” (The Recovery Village). The amount …show more content…
“At a basic level, a wall or fence can never stop illegal immigration because a wall or fence cannot apprehend anyone” (Bier, Cato Institute). As Bier stated, a border wall in theory won’t necessarily stop illegal immigration as once thought. As previously stated in this paper, just because there is a wall that doesn’t mean that these illegal immigrants hailing from the southwest border wouldn’t be able to tunnel under or climb over a wall. With this in mind if the wall were to be ineffective as some suggest, it would be a huge waste of capital as well as an enormous setback in our economy. Hypothetically assuming that the wall gets built and is perfect in keeping out immigrants, we would lose a huge economic boost provided in part by illegal immigrants. “Immigration boosts earnings for American workers. Increased immigration to the United States has increased the earnings of Americans with more than a high school degree. Between 1990 and 2004, increased immigration was correlated with increasing earnings of Americans by 0.7 percent and is expected to contribute to an increase of 1.8 percent over the long-term, according to a study by the University of California at Davis” (National Archives and Records Administration). As seen by the statistic above, the wages of those with a high school degree or higher increases by 0.7 percent in part due to illegal immigrants which may not seem that great, however, when this accounts for over 150 million people it is no number to be disregarded. In addition to that, “Immigrants boost demand for local consumer goods. The Immigration Policy Center estimates that the purchasing power of Latinos and Asians, many of whom are immigrants, alone will reach $1.5 trillion” (National Archives and Records Administration). This statistic includes both illegal and legal immigrants, so with that in mind, if illegal immigrants were to be
First off, How effective would a border wall be in preventing drug-trafficking through the southern border? In order to understand how effective the wall would be in preventing drug-trafficking we must first understand how drug-trafficking works along the southern border. “The Mexican drug cartels make an estimated 19 - 29 billion dollars of revenue every year off of US drug sales” (The Recovery Village). The amount …show more content…
“At a basic level, a wall or fence can never stop illegal immigration because a wall or fence cannot apprehend anyone” (Bier, Cato Institute). As Bier stated, a border wall in theory won’t necessarily stop illegal immigration as once thought. As previously stated in this paper, just because there is a wall that doesn’t mean that these illegal immigrants hailing from the southwest border wouldn’t be able to tunnel under or climb over a wall. With this in mind if the wall were to be ineffective as some suggest, it would be a huge waste of capital as well as an enormous setback in our economy. Hypothetically assuming that the wall gets built and is perfect in keeping out immigrants, we would lose a huge economic boost provided in part by illegal immigrants. “Immigration boosts earnings for American workers. Increased immigration to the United States has increased the earnings of Americans with more than a high school degree. Between 1990 and 2004, increased immigration was correlated with increasing earnings of Americans by 0.7 percent and is expected to contribute to an increase of 1.8 percent over the long-term, according to a study by the University of California at Davis” (National Archives and Records Administration). As seen by the statistic above, the wages of those with a high school degree or higher increases by 0.7 percent in part due to illegal immigrants which may not seem that great, however, when this accounts for over 150 million people it is no number to be disregarded. In addition to that, “Immigrants boost demand for local consumer goods. The Immigration Policy Center estimates that the purchasing power of Latinos and Asians, many of whom are immigrants, alone will reach $1.5 trillion” (National Archives and Records Administration). This statistic includes both illegal and legal immigrants, so with that in mind, if illegal immigrants were to be