Blog 5 "Is the wall worth it"

Immigration has been a recurring issue in the United States for a very long time. Many illegal immigrants have been reported to cross the United States borders every year. Such reports have sparked the United States government to pursue an initiative of expanding the power of the government to secure the borders of the nation against illegal immigrants. In 2018, it’s estimated that there are about 12.5 million illegal immigrants in America. Of those, 84% of them come from central America, Asia, and the largest amount coming from Mexico. Building a border wall to keep out illegal immigrants won’t just cost billions of US dollars, it would also affect the US economy, and environment.

 The wall comes with many costs, some obvious though hard to estimate, some unforeseen. The most obvious is the large financial outlay required to build it, in whatever form it eventually takes. From acquiring land, paying the workers, and actually building the fence. President Trump claimed that the wall would cost only 12 billion, a department of homeland security (DHS) internal report in February put the cost at 21.6 billion, but that may be a major underestimate. The estimates vary so widely because of the lack of clarity about what the wall will actually consists of. Homeland security specification state that it will be either solid concrete or a see-through structure, sunk at least six feet to prevent underground tunnels and ideally 3030 feet high but no less than 18 feet. With all these innovations, if immigrants still find a way to get through. Was you hard earn money put to good use?

Immigrants have always been vital assets to the U.S economy and contribute greatly to the nation's total economic output and tax revenue. All immigrants, regardless of legal status, contribute to the American economy. The 12.5 million unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S today contribute 11.64 billion in state and local taxes each year. The social security administration estimates that unauthorized immigrants contribute a net of 13 billion in payroll taxes annually, which helps strengthen the social security system. Immigrants have historically played an important role in the building of the United states; a border would not only decrease the economy but affect the people that rely on the resources. 

The wall will also have significant environmental costs in areas that host some of the greatest biodiversity in North America. Altogether, more than 100 species of animals that occur along the U.S-Mexico border, in the Sky Islands are as well as in the Big Bend National Park in Texas and in the Rio Grande Valley, are endangered or threatened.

As a nation build off immigrants, Who really own the U.S. If the native Americans would of build a border across the U.S. a long time ago would the U.S even exist? If so, would they have want the border as bad as they want it now?