Theme:
- The US and Mexico share a border of 1900 miles which includes uninhabited desert, major cities, and the Rio Grande River. However, about 700 miles is already covered with fences, concrete barricades, gunboats, drones, SUV’s.
- Trump began his presidential campaign, two years ago in June 2015, with the pledge of a border wall to keep out Mexican immigrants, whom he branded “criminals” and “rapists”.
- According to Trump’s proposal, there will be a wall, build on only 1000 miles area of the total 1900 miles. as the remaining 900 miles are almost impossible to cross due to its geographical features.
- Trump has proposed to build the wall at the minimal cost of 8 billion dollars, but others organizations have estimated the cost to be around 15-25 billion dollars, plus 700 million per year as a maintenance cost.
- Trump also in his speeches has specifically mentioned that Mexico is going to pay/reimburse the whole cost of the wall. though he didn’t mention anything to date as to how this is going to happen.
Good:
- US being the largest market in the world for illegal drugs, about 93% of the cocaine consumed in the US comes through these borders, and so does methamphetamines. These are smuggled through tunnels, or even shot from cannons from across the border. Hence building the wall is certainly going to reduce this by a considerable number.
- The US also has a large number of gun dealers who smuggle the guns across the border to Mexico. Therefore, making the wall could be a great way to reduce this.
- Tijuana, a city situated along the Mexican border run by drug cartels, is one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico, and an important place for the illegal crossing of the border. Therefore, building the wall along this is going to make it nearly impossible for ‘COYOTES’ to help people cross the border.
- The wall could easily become a tourist attraction as it is going to be 35 ft tall and 1000 miles long which is even higher than the Great Wall of China which is only 26 ft tall.
- Trump has also proposed putting up solar panels on the whole wall which could turn out to be a good source of energy for the country.
Bad:
- According to the reports, illegal crossing of the borders has actually decreased from the year 2014 to 2015 which renders no use in building the wall.
- The budget that Trump estimated of 8 billion dollars is contrary to the estimates of the building experts, i.e. somewhere between 16-20 billion dollars.
- The US already has one of the strongest border security agency in the world, which is equipped with guns, drones, towers, ground sensors, helicopters, gunboats and dogs and the US also doubled the number of border agents in the last decade. All these expenses are already way too much and now making the wall doesn’t seem to be a good idea.
- US treaties with Mexico won’t let them build anything on the Rio Grande River and the areas around it. Furthermore, most of the areas along the border in Texas are privately owned which leaves a large part of the border uncovered. So, building the wall is not going to bring any change.
- According to some analysts, a majority of illegal immigrants in the US have entered through Air, i.e. they came with the visa and never left; some of them have even been living there for more than 10 years. Therefore, the US needs to make sure these illegal immigrants return, rather than building the billion-dollar wall.
- Building the wall is going to help the Mexican Economy rather than USA Economy, as the largest construction company and the largest cement producer in both north and south America is a Mexican company that is going to earn huge profits from the wall.
- There is a fairly good chance that the wall is never going to make it up. Projects like these take a large amount of time to complete and if in the next Presidential elections, any other person gets elected, there will be more chances of him/her stopping the construction of the wall.
Conclusion:
Building the US-Mexico border wall seems to be a bad investment, considering the consequences. Instead of rushing through the decision, it’s much better to take the opinion of citizens before implementing it.
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