Trump and the Great Wall of Mexico
So much has been happening in the last few weeks it feels overwhelming to select what topic to write about. Solely because my mother is in Mexico at the moment, I am going to discuss the infamous "wall" that our dear POTUS has repeatedly touted.
Surprise everyone! It wasn't just campaign rhetoric. President Trump is going to build his wall and Mexico is going to pay for it God damn it! No matter that the president of Mexico has vehemently denied this fact. Because, winning. Big league. Random twitter rant.
This is an idiotic idea on so many levels I don't know where to begin. The idea that somehow he is going to go all "art of the deal" on us and get Mexico to pay for it, either now or as a reimbursement, is ludicrous. President Peña Nieto has vocalized his absolute opposition to this proposal. Even if Trump raises tariffs on Mexican imports, the overall impact will still hit American pocketbooks. As argued in Forbes, "Even if we spread the cost of constructing the wall over 10 years—the standard federal budgeting horizon—financing it entirely from tariffs would mean quadrupling existing duties on Mexican imports.That would expose over $236.3 billion of current annual U.S. exports to Mexico to retaliatory tariff increases." Furthermore, this would most likely lead US importers to look to other countries as alternative supply sources. This, therefore, shrinks the base of/revenue from the new taxes. In the end, US consumers would be the main funders of the wall due to higher prices of goods. Lastly, due to the "United States’ North American Free Trade Agreement (NATO) and World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments mean that any unilateral tariff increases would be limited to colorable claims of anti-dumping measures or countervailing duties to offset Mexican subsidies." No matter how many times President Trump jumps up and down and shouts Mexico will pay, its all a smoke and mirrors show.
Moreover, the few extra minutes that it would take for an individual in a remote area to figure out how to get through the wall are inconsequential.
Furthermore, lets look at this on a humanitarian level. Despite President Trump's ludicrous claims of "bad hombres", many of the immigrants attempting to cross the border on doing so to escape horrible situations back home. If your child had little access to food, clothing, and other necessities, if gang fighting were ravishing your home, wouldn't you flee for better circumstances? If its a matter of life and death, breaking the law to cross into the United States doesn't seem like that big a deal.
Additionally, most of these individuals fleeing such situations are not coming from Mexico, whose economy has improved over the last several years. Instead, according to Seth Stodder, who was appointed by President Obama to serve as Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Border, Immigration & Trade Policy in March 2016,
"The actual crisis involves thousands of migrants from Central America’s “Northern Triangle” — El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — who are fleeing brutal gang violence, extreme poverty or malnutrition. Roughly half of these migrants are women and young children escaping desperate circumstances, facing the real possibility of death or rape if they stay. Others are fleeing extreme poverty in remote regions where education ends at the sixth grade and families are limited to one meal a day."
Stodder argues (and I agree), that Congress should forget the wall and instead focus on re-establishing the rule of law, as well as help meet our humanitarian promises. Legislators should work to provide more assistance to repair the immigration system in the United States. More money and resources should be given to help immigration courts work efficiently and process asylum claims. We should focus on cracking down on financial backers and gangs who leech onto vulnerable parties.
This is a very complex issue, but in the end we need to recognize we are dealing with human lives. Protecting the dignity and physical body of all those involved is of the utmost importance. A wall would a middle finger to the world, and would be antithetical to our claim of being the land of the free and brave. The Statue of Liberty would have to close up shop and head back to France, her country of origin.