Good evening, my fellow Americans.
I realize that it’s getting late. You probably have been working all day, and the last thing you want is some politician blowing hot air in your face. But I do have something important to say to you, and I promise I will keep it short.
What we have just seen has to be the most remarkably dishonest use of the president’s Bully Pulpit in American history. The President of the United States has just told us about an alleged security crisis at our southern border and a humanitarian crisis there, as well. It was mostly cherry-picked details taken out of context, laced with alleged “facts” that simply are not facts at all. Little of what he told us is actually true, but that did not stop him from saying it.
I will leave the debunking to the professionals. Instead, I want to give you 5 basic reasons why building the President’s wall is a very bad idea. You can think about them on your own time, and decide for yourself.
1) It’s contrary to the principles of our democracy. Only a small minority of Americans — less that 40% — actually support building this wall. This is an effort by a minority president to impose a minority opinion on all Americans. That is wrong all by itself.
2) Something the President doesn’t want to talk about: It will require the federal government to take land from private citizens through Eminent Domain in order to build it. Any number of families living along the border with Mexico will be forced to allow this wall to be built on their property, sometimes actually dividing the property in two. It is really astonishing that our Repbulican colleagues, who constantly complain about Big Government, would actually support this.
3) The cost. The President wants around 5 and a half billion dollars for this project. What he won’t tell you, is that that is only the beginning. Expert analyses, from both left-leaning and right-leaning think tanks agree: This wall will turn out to be much, much more expensive. Some estimates are as high as 10 times the 5-odd billion dollars the President wants. And remember: Every wall has to be patrolled and maintained. We will have to dramatically expand our border protection agencies and the services that support them. All of that comes at a continuing cost to the taxpayers…every year, indefinitely.
The wall that the President wants will cover only 200 miles of a 2000-mile border. That’s only 10%. So take that 50-billion dollar estimate and multiply it by ten, and you will get a better picture of the actual cost of securing our border with a high-tech wall. That is where this is all going: To try to secure our border with a wall will involve as much as half a trillion dollars. All this for a wall that we know will not even fix the problems.
So, summing up what we have so far: this wall is contrary to the principles of our democracy, it will involve the seizing of private property to build it, and it will be far more expensive than the President claims.
4) There is no such crisis that a wall like this can fix. This is a little complicated, but bear with me. I’ll try to make it clear.
When the President took office in 2017, illegal immigration was at an historic low. Yes, there has been a small uptick since then, largely because of the President’s own policies. But the best information we have, from agencies like Customs and Border Protection, is that the real illegal immigration problem is not people storming the border, as the President wants you to think. No, the vast majority of illegal immigration comes from people already here legally in the country: foreign visitors here legally who overstay their visas or work permits. This does need to be fixed, but no wall is going to do that!
The President insists that there is a humanitarian crisis at our border, and to some extent, he is correct. There certainly are staffing and infrastructure problems at certain points on the border that are creating humanitarian issues, and these problems have to be addressed. That is why the House of Representatives has passed an appropriations bill to address this problem. We urge our colleagues in the Senate to pass it and the President to sign it into law.
However much of this humanitarian crisis is, once again, the result of the President’s own policies, especially separating families, deporting parents and so on.
Apart from this, there is no crisis. Before the last election, the President sent thousands of troops to the border, allegedly to protect us from hordes of invading foreigners. Of course, there were no such hordes. It was a cheap political stunt aimed at influencing the election. The soldiers got there and literally had nothing to do!
5) And last, but to my mind certainly not least, is the environmental cost of this boondoggle. Wildlife, especially in the national parks and monuments along the border, depend on access to water – especially the Rio Grande and its tributaries – as well as freedom to migrate. The wall itself will endanger a number of important animal species, such as the black bear, bighorn sheep, and wild cats. This wall will produce local extinctions of these species, thus impoverishing the natural environment that Americans come to these parks and monuments to enjoy.
And of course, to build this unsightly thing in these beautiful natural settings that we regard as our common heritage will require heavy machinery, transport, roads, and so on, scarring the earth and massively disrupting natural habitats along the border. Much of that damage will simply be irreparable. We will be permanently scarring the earth, for the sake of a wall that won’t even do what we want it to do. It’s really unconscionable.
So summing up: Five reasons why the wall is a bad idea.
It’s anti-democratic.
It will involve government appropriation of private property.
It will be much, much more expensive than the President is letting
on.
It will not address the actual problems with our immigration
system at all.
Its environmental impacts will be devastating.
Once again, thank you for lending an ear, and may God bless you all.
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