This week [[
note: relative to the article's posting date, roughly two weeks ago]] President Donald Trump Tweeted:
Originally Posted by
Trump's Twitter
Big day planned on NATIONAL SECURITY tomorrow. Among many other things, we will build the wall!
Jan 24, 2017
Immediately, the media’s questions started rolling in. Who will pay for the wall? How does a 2,000-mile wall get built? What will additional border patrol agents do to our national debt?
But there’s one question I would like someone to answer for me: why are we building a wall in the first place? For our national security? Against Mexicans? Yeah, right.
Immigrants from Mexico are not our problem. Mexico, contrary to popular belief, is not our main source of unauthorized immigrants. According to the last Census Bureau, in 2013, China became the No. 1 country for new immigrants to the United States. Did you know we have 50,000 illegal immigrants from Ireland? And, in 2000, potential terrorists were caught along the Canadian/U.S. border, not the Mexican border.
You see, our new president is blaming the wrong country for illegal immigration. And now he’s going to build a wall based on some bad intel.
Someone needs to tell Donald Trump that Mexico is a friendly neighbor, our third largest trade partner, and not a threat to our national security. And, to top things off, there are actually more Mexican immigrants leaving the United States than entering it. Yes, it’s true. According to the Pew Research Center, the number of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico peaked in 2007. Since then, we have had a decline in Mexican migration for a variety of reasons. The main reason is this: Mexicans are leaving because they want to. It’s their own decision.
Here are the raw numbers: from 2009 to 2014, more than 140,000 Mexicans immigrants returned to Mexico, making the net migration of immigrants from Mexico to the U.S. a net zero. And, border apprehension is at an all time low as well, at around 1970 levels.
So, why is President Trump demanding a wall along the Mexican border when most of our immigrants are coming from countries other than Mexico and the terrorists prefer the Canadian border? According to the cable news pundits, “He’s fulfilling his campaign promise.” That’s it. No other reason?
We are going to alter the landscape between two countries because Trump is reaching out to his base, those who voted for him? He’s going to build a 2,000-mile wall along one of the world’s most peaceful borders for no other reason than Trump’s other followers want it. It’s that simple.
During an inaugural event, a reporter asked Actor Scott Baio, of Happy Days fame, what he wanted Trump to do first. Without hesitating, Chachi (as we Happy Days fans know him) said: “Building the wall.”
Again, I have to ask: why? Why do so many Americans, like Baio, want a wall separating two friendly neighbors? I’d hate to think that it’s racism for and prejudice against Mexicans and Latinos. But, as history has shown us, this is the only answer. We are a melting pot of a nation, but every new immigrant group has had its share of abuse from the “natives.” We used to criticize the Italians and the Irish, calling them sneaky and dirty. Now, we don’t mind 50,000 undocumented Irish, and we save those negative adjectives for the Latino immigrants.
Instead of a wall with Mexico, perhaps we need to build a wall in the country providing us with the majority of undocumented immigrants: China. It will be, as Trump would say, “Huge!” It will run for miles. It would keep people separated from one another. We could call it a “Great Wall” for China. Oh, wait, they already have one of those. So, if China already has a wall, why are there so many Chinese undocumented immigrants able to leave and come here?
Perhaps the bottom line is this: building a wall never works. It’s costly and unnecessary. And it does nothing for our “national security.” Now I just wish someone would explain this to the President. And Scott Baio.