Editorial: In support of President Trump and the wall
FILE – In this Nov. 10, 2016, file photo, workers continue work raising a taller fence in the Mexico-US border area separating the towns of Anapra, Mexico and Sunland Park, N.M. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Friday, Feb. 24, 2017, that it plans to start awarding contracts by mid-April for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico, signaling that he is aggressively pursuing plans to erect “a great wall” along the 2,000-mile border. (AP Photo/Christian Torres, File)
Editorials in The Knight Crier, unless otherwise stated, do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the entire staff.
Ever since Donald Trump launched his 2016 presidential campaign, the idea of a wall at the southern border has been a controversial topic. Many politicians and citizens strongly disagree with the president’s efforts of decreasing illegal immigration via a wall, calling it a “racist” and “unconstitutional” move. Protests have taken place seeing that the wall was introduced, and to add onto Trump’s obstacles, sixteen states are currently suing Trump regarding his national emergency declaration. February 15th was the day that President Donald Trump pursued his mission to protect the American people and the American economy by declaring a national emergency, an effort I support with tremendous pride.
Illegal immigration has been an issue in the United States for quite some time now. This being said, something must be done. Our president is fighting for the wall to protect the United States and to enforce legal immigration. If things were to go his way, illegal immigration would begin to be dealt with at one of its main sources, but his efforts are constantly being blocked by the democratic party.
This statement, public on Homeland Security’s website, sums up the chances of the wall being successful:
“Walls Work. When it comes to stopping drugs and illegal aliens from crossing our borders, border walls have proven to be extremely effective. Border security relies on a combination of border infrastructure, technology, personnel and partnerships with law enforcement at the state, local, tribal, and federal level. For example, when we installed a border wall in the Yuma Sector, we have seen border apprehensions decrease by 90 percent. In San Diego, we saw on Sunday that dilapidated, decades-old barriers are not sufficient for today’s threat and need to be removed so new – up to 30 foot wall sections can be completed.”
Opinion writer Ford O’Connell has similar views about the construction of a wall at the border. In one of his articles, he shares, “until Congress has the will to change the asylum laws and to fix the other legal loopholes and defects, it would be foolish not to better secure the southern border in the meantime.” This statement was released on ‘The Hill’ just a few weeks ago (January 12th, 2019), so his feelings on the topic should still be similar, if not the same.
The effects of illegal immigration can be more intense than you think, so let me break it down for you. Below are some out of the many ways how illegals end up negatively affecting the United States.
Illegal Immigration Reduces Wages
By increasing the supply of available labor in a specific area, wages tend to fall, in many cases, due to the idea of illegal immigration. These illegal workers tend to work underpaid, lowering wages for others in that area. Not only are wages affected, but the literal jobs. Since they tend to work for less, employers are more likely to choose them, leaving the American people without jobs.
Alan de Brauw, a writer featured in the CATO Journal, focused on the effects that illegal immigration has on the working American class in his article, ‘Does Immigration Reduce Wages?”
“Low-skilled native workers would be helped by the wall as they would face less competition from illegal immigrants. High-skilled workers would face less competition from immigrants who arrive on H-1B visas and who work in high technology jobs,” stated Brauw.
Economist George J. Borjas shares in a separate article that, “Wage trends over the past half-century suggest that a 10 percent increase in the number of workers with a particular set of skills probably lowers the wage of that group by at least 3 percent. Even after the economy has fully adjusted, those skill groups that received the most immigrants will still offer lower pay relative to those that received fewer immigrants.”
Illegal Immigration Requires Law Enforcement Resources
Finances are required to deal with many illegal immigration cases, including border security and law enforcement. Jails and arrests are also costly factors regarding illegal immigration. According to the National Review, U.S. taxpayers paid about $1.9 billion to house imprisoned immigrants in 2014 alone. I couldn’t imagine what that number is now.
The National Academies Press shared, “we [estimate] that from 4 to 7 percent of the more than 1.5 million persons held in American jails and prisons are noncitizens. At an average annual cost of more than $30,000 per inmate, the financial source of public and policy concern is obvious.”
Illegal Immigration Contributes to School Crowding
In many cases, immigrants don’t come alone when entering the United States. They either enter as families or expand their families within the US. This being said, school systems can be heavily affected. Illegal immigrants are usually less wealthy, which can be a burden to a school system.
Fairus.org released a statement explaining the effects illegal immigration has on the United States’ public school systems.
“Public school districts across the United States are suffering under a massive unfunded mandate imposed by the federal government: the requirement to educate millions of illegal aliens, the school age children of illegal aliens, refugees and legal immigrant students. FAIR estimates that it currently costs public schools $59.8 billion to serve this burgeoning population. The struggle to fund programs for students with Limited English Proficiency (LEP), sometimes called English Language Learners (ELL), represents a major drain on school budgets. Yet due to political correctness, it is taboo to raise the issue even though scarce resources are redirected away from American citizens to support programs like English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and English as a Second Language (ESL).”
Illegal Immigration Brings Crime to the United States
. CNN published an article, written by Catherine E. Sholchet on January 8th, 2019, regarding statistics about illegal immigration and crime, saying that “one in five inmates in federal prison are foreign-born, and that the vast majority of those people are in the United States illegally.”
On the other hand, freedom DOES include allowing people into our country, but there must be limitations. We have a system for a reason, a system that requires major revamping.
How will the wall solve this? Simple. Walls work. The following countries have implemented a wall to stop illegal immigration and terrorism: Algeria, Bangladesh, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, India, Israel, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen.
“Walls do have a history of doing their job and, indeed, they are the tried-and-true go-to strategy almost everywhere that security or illegal migration is a concern. A border wall isn’t analogous to the Berlin Wall nor should it be seen in the same light. After all, there’s a huge difference between a system designed to keep people in — a lock on the door — and a system designed to keep people out — the door itself,” states Michael Rubin, the Executive Chairman of Fanatics. With walls being used in numerous locations, what says it won’t work here? Of course it won’t work if it is never given a chance.
That is why I support the wall, I support President Donald Trump, and I support the safety of this country. As a true American citizen, all I want at the end of the day are for our laws to be followed and our people to be safe. Allowing illegals into our country isn’t doing so. Instead, the opposite transpires, which does not make me feel proud to be here.
President Donald Trump makes it clear day by day that the construction of a wall at the southern border is a good idea, not only to keep his promise, but to protect the American people. Through tweets and quotes given to the media, he isn’t ready to back down. Why should he? He has created a well thought out platform to change an issue in our country. He can’t help that the left is denying him a chance to give it a try. Instead of giving up, he pushed forward, expressing his concerns on social media and beyond.
Some tweets include:
“SECURE THE BORDER! BUILD THE WALL!”
“There are now 77 major or significant Walls built around the world, with 45 countries planning or building Walls. Over 800 miles of Walls have been built in Europe since only 2015. They have all been recognized as close to 100% successful. Stop the crime at our Southern Border!”
“It is becoming more and more obvious that the Radical Democrats are a Party of open borders and crime. They want nothing to do with the major Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border. #2020!”
Not only is President Trump backed up by his fellow politicians, but a large group of the American people. 2 months ago, a GoFundMe page was created, titled ‘We the People Will Build the Wall’. Whether it was started as a gag or not, over $20 million has been raised so far. Citizens of the United States are able to see the need for a wall at the border.
Recent polls made public on The Washington Examiner also emphasize an uproar of support from the American people when it comes to the wall. “42 percent of Americans support a wall. That is up from 34 percent one year ago and a previous high of 37 percent in 2017,” explained Daniel Chaitin. He continued by saying, “a quarter of Americans — 24 percent — believe there is a crisis-level situation in regards to immigration at the border.”
Overall, illegal immigration is a major issue within our country. It seems as if we have a plausible solution on our hands. All we need to do it put it into effect, because if we build the wall, crime will fall.
SOURCES CONSULTED FOR THIS EDITORIAL:
https://www.gobankingrates.com/making-money/jobs/10-ways-illegal-immigration-affects-financially/
https://www.dhs.gov/news/2018/12/12/walls-work
https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/424971-trump-is-right-walls-work-on-the-southern-border
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/trump-clinton-immigration-economy-unemployment-jobs-214216
https://www.nap.edu/read/5985/chapter/10
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/support-for-trumps-wall-reaches-all-time-high-poll
liz • Mar 7, 2019 at 9:39 am
Thank you for standing up for what you believe in. I have kept up with your journalism journey and am inspired day by day with the information you put out there! Trump is a good guy, and I have learned this through your work! Thanks again!
Michael Schmit • Mar 6, 2019 at 9:36 pm
At first, I thought a wall was crazy…but then I changed my mind. You bring up many valid points that everyone must see and understand. This wall is only making this country a better place. And for the last time – he isn’t racist.
Vincent Caminnecj • Mar 6, 2019 at 9:10 pm
For a High School student, this is excellent prose; the article maintains a very respectable and apolmb structure and writing. I applaud your efforts for creating a comprehensive and informative article.
However, each and every argument you made has serious faults. I won’t get into all of the details because this is just a comment, but to summarize some facts in immigration policy: Immigrants do not lower the wages of natives according to NAP, and they don’t take jobs away from natives either. Immigrants of all kinds take the unoccupied jobs that natives are not doing. If there was any wage decrease anyway, then that supplies a separate argument for why Worker’s Unions are so important. Illegal immigration itself is a crime, but too many immigrants that desire entry or residency into our country are barred by stringent laws which force them to enter through force because of worsening situations at home, or the promise of prosperity in the USA.
Illegal immigration will not be stopped by a wall, in fact, it will likely worsen it as current illegal immigrants are trapped inside the country and foreigners travel here by airplane or maybe even boat. The best alternative to a wall, would be the building of rehabilitation centers that could help immigrants and homeless folks alike find their place in society, plus a return to the turnstile method of work between the U.S. and Mexico that thrived until the 1950’s brought an end to it. We can’t fear immigrants coming into our country, and taking our jobs, because the threat is so miniscule. Hard-line restrictions on immigration actually weakens our place in the GDP and GWI because immigrants feed our economy in many different ways, work alongside our noble native workers, and assimilate themselves into the American culture and society. A society that has prided itself on a rinse-and-repeat process of immigration, nativism/racism, acceptance, and repeat. Starting in the beginning of our country when discussing Irishmen, and continuing nowadays with Latin Americans and Arab folks.
One final point: a wall won’t protect us, it will put us in that pile of countries you mentioned before. Countries like Turkey or Greece, who have suffered economic pain, executive corruption (Netanyahu indicted on corruption charges in Israel), and human rights abuses against those that attempted to enter their countries. In a modern world, kindness toward those that want to work for our country is simply required, or else we will cease to be a world superpower. A wall will obtain the shame of our allies, laughter of our enemies, anger of our wannabe citizens, and destruction of global influence as isolationist doctrine sinks back into the American core. A possibility too horrific to work toward.
Tasmia Hosneara • Mar 6, 2019 at 4:38 pm
This was a really good article . In a time where people are against the wall this articles shows the pros of the wall. Here are some things that the wall won’t solve. It won’t solve the illegal immigration because a lot of immigrants have overstaying visas. I also don’t think that the wall will not solve the crime problems because most of the crime are not committed by immigrants. The economy might be a little better because of thr illegal immigrants going out of the country . I don’t support the wall but I do think that we need to do something about illegal immigrants.
Janet Kratz • Mar 6, 2019 at 3:04 pm
I LOVE the way you attributed all of your sources. You can be proud that you did your homework and expressed yourself professionally. Even those who disagree with you will take you more seriously when you clearly state your sources.
Ashleeb • Mar 6, 2019 at 1:00 pm
Good Read