On June 16th, 2016 the launch of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was formally announced in the ‘Trump Towers” in New York City. On November 8th, 2016 he was inaugurated as our forty-fifth president of the United States of America. Throughout the presidential campaign Donald Trump insisted on a higher more fortified wall be built as a barrier from Mexico to the United States and insisted that the Mexican government governed by Enrique Peña Nieto covered the costs of the wall, which ranged anywhere from $12 million to $25 million. Enrique Peña Nieto later revealed that the Mexican government will not provide any funds for the wall, as well as made it very apparent to the people of the United States and Mexico that he will negate to give his full support on the project. However, on January 25th, 2017 the Trump legislation endorsed a Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements Executive Order, to initiate extending the border wall.
Trump was primarily expecting funding from the Democratic Party and in return he extended an offer to help a democratic objective which was stipulating legal status to 800,000 young, undocumented immigrants under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in exchange for money as a short term “loan” concept (Obrador). Later he dismantled that compromise, instead he constructed an impasse expanding the likelihood that the government would run out of money and shut down.
Present day president Donald Trump wants congress to increase his budget for the building of the wall which currently is at 1.6 billion, with another 1.6 billion on the way and wants an increase to the amount to get his project done sooner. This brings high dilemmas for the American government primarily congress, fearing over government shutdowns not only by the implication of the high costs of this wall but also worried of the wrath of our president if his wishes are not met by congress. As pressure builds with uproar over his approach of his administration separating children from their families when migrating to the United States the more tension he feels to get the process done faster. Unexpectedly Trump claims that the one of the reasons his effort to get the wall finished in an upbeat manner is to actually stop the separation of families, claiming “the horrendous feeling the children get when their parents leave their home country to a new one without their family being whole is not a feeling any child should have to experience (Trump). He claims it “decreases the drug distribution from Mexico to the United States. As well as it stops what Donald Trump claims is criminals coming to the United States” (Trump). With all of Donald Trump’s claims we cannot help but wonder what his true agenda is for the people of his country as well as the people of Mexico.
One of the biggest worries of not only the American people but of congress as well is Trump administering a government shutdown. A government shutdown can be depicted when “congress does not approve a federal budget for the upcoming fiscal year and nonessential functions of the U.S. government close until lawmakers can agree on a budget” (Times). Some grave effects that come with a government shutdown is people being given furlough days. Now this may seem like an advantage, but people eventually end up losing money, which is essentially known as an unpaid leave this could be inconvenient on the average working class person due to particular money troubles. Not all furloughs become unpaid, typically the government will issue refunds but this becomes an issue when we essentially begin paying people for not working.
These shutdowns can vary in time. Time for a shutdown is based on how long government officials take to come to an agreement. As much as we like to think this only affects the citizens of the United States we must realize it also affects our government and economy in ways we could not imagine. It essentially becomes a day of loss of productivity and rise of borrowing costs, we pay people for not working instead of working, the total cost of a few day government shutdown could vary from $6 billion to $24 billion. All in all a government shutdown is not an adique way of approaching our nation’s problems. It adjoins the hard verdict and has grave expenditure for the budget, the economy, and all the citizens of America. Instead of making crisis, government officials should work diligently to make a long-term policy.
Many presume when American taxpayers realize the facts, they will negate to give their tax dollars to the building of Donald Trump’s extravagant wall. It would be the largest expenditures in U.S. history. The estimate does not currently show the future costs of wall maintenance and security. This brings a larger conversation to the table when it comes to the distribution of tax payers dollars. Many believe we must fix our current system rather than add on a new expenditure. The American citizens claim that logistically Trump’s plan for this wall are bound to fail. Humans have ever only built a wall of this nature throughout centuries of long history. The Great Wall of China progressed through the use of forced labor of Chinese citizens. Trump’s current plan to get the wall finished in a quickly manner is to perpetuate the Mexican government and push them into spending all their resources on this wall. The resources Donald Trump hopes to gain from the hispanic government are workers to actually build the stature of the wall, government officials to secure the wall, as well as the money that is being put into the wall currently is only going to the prototype. The end goal of our president is to have this wall completely constructed and fortified by the year 2020.
In the conversation of how Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful wall” will affect us in many negative aspects we seem to overlook the topic of how the wall separating Mexico from the United States will negatively harm our environment. Conservationists confirmed that a change of that magnitude could potentially be disastrous for many species, and can lead to an “incline extinction in the United States for endangered animals like jaguars, ocelots, and the Mexican gray wolf” (Silva).
