If you haven’t heard, immigration is a big topic in American politics but, there’s one main factor that makes people choose on side on this issue, It’s the wall. Many people are in favor for the wall, many others are against. This topic has been going on for nearly 3 years now, yet nobody has won. Of course, the wall isn’t the only thing to debate about, regarding the wall. There’re the border policies, and people seeking refuge. Not everyone is happy with the current president we have, and some aren’t happy with what his views are, regarding the border and other subjects.
Border Immigration is a giant topic, sometimes a delicate topic. Immigration is when one moves from one place to another, for example moving from Russia to France. Immigration is very controversial and there are more than 2 perspectives you can take. The border wall is a big deal in this topic, obviously our current president is for the wall, but it hasn’t really been built yet, or not much of it. In the article “Trump wall – all you need to know” by Lucy Rodgers and Dominic Bailey it states “Overall, Congress has so far approved $1.7bn in funding for 124 miles of new and replacement barrier since Mr. Trump entered the White House.” Our president is building the wall but at a slow pace, he technically hasn’t broken his promise yet. There are different views some for the wall, and others against the wall. The wall is obviously very expensive as it ranges at 8 billion to 70 billion dollars ( BBC, Lucy Rodgers, Dominic Bailey).
The wall is very expensive, it isn’t as simple as some people make it out to be, it cost money. The wall will cost billions of dollars to finish constructing. Initially, Trump was asking for 8 billion dollars to 12 billion dollars for the wall. Now he is asking for 5.7 billion dollars as some natural barriers will fill in for part of the wall (BBC, Lucy Rodgers, Dominic Bailey). The wall is a big load for taxpayers and about half of them wouldn’t care if it was used towards the wall, but the other half is unsure. The wall would take many hands to build. It would also take years to finish construction of the wall. It couldn’t be finished during Trump 1st term.
Another thing Trump has been bugging at in the whole border debate are the crime levels and activities. Yes, there are drugs being smuggled across and yes, there are some bad apples. But, do we let those few bad apples spoil the rest? The answer should be no, some people are trying to find a better life to live. Obviously, there must be some sort of rules on our border but there is no need for a wall. In the article “Trump’s New Rallying” by David Nakamura it states, “John Sandweg, who served as a high-ranking Department of Homeland Security official in the Obama administration, said that a sizable portion of immigrants apprehended at the border had existing arrest records in the United States and were attempting to reenter the country after being deported.” A lot of immigrants don’t learn the first time nor the second, so what do we do about this? The border is as tight as it can be, but immigrants seem to sneak through how do some do this? The answer is overstaying, overusing their visa and abusing their residency.
Many immigrants who use a visa to gain residency within United States tend to overstay and abuse the visa. A visa card is a card that grants residency to immigrants moving to the United States for a certain amount of time. This is usually taken advantage of, and immigrants tend to stay within the United States even though their Visa has expired. In the article “Visa overstays are half the amount” by Chris Nichols it states, “Half of everyone that’s here illegally (in the US) came here legally on a visa and have overstayed their visa,’ McCarthy, a Republican from Bakersfield”. These numbers are too high, though it isn’t 100% factual it is truly seemed to be around 45% of Visa owners overstaying in the United States.
The United States-Mexican border has also been known for gang turf. There are plenty of these gangs on the border. One of the most popular gangs being MS-13. This gang has been known for doing some unlawful deeds. Last year in a six-month period there were about 180 MS-13 gang members arrested. In the article “MS-13 Gang Arrests are up This Year” by Paul Weber it states “MS-13, a vicious gang held responsible for murders in cities across the U.S. But sealing the border completely would not eliminate the gang.” There are a lot of these gang members, some within our own country. Every now and then there are some gang wars that cause a major abruption at the border. In the article “20 Dead in grisly Mexican Gang Battle at the Border” by Reuters it states, “A Mexican security official said that authorities discovered 20 bodies on Wednesday, 17 of them burned, outside Ciudad Miguel Aleman, which is about 56 miles from McAllen, across the Rio Grande river.” Though this was 2 Mexican gangs brawling against each other there are gang fights that happen from across the border. Many things happen over the border. There are many different gangs in the great state of Texas. Many of these gangs don’t care about each other, or some help each other but, when a gang gets into a quarrel with another gang, all hell breaks loose. In the state of Texas, it has been said that there are over 100,000 gang members in Texas. It has also been said that there have been numerous gangs assisting the local cartels in drug smuggling. These drugs are going over the border and into the United States, where they are distributed and sold.
Cartels are just as dangerous, if not more dangerous than the gangs that hug the border. Cartels usually distribute illegal narcotics into other countries and into their own. For example, Pablo Escobar was a famous cartel leader and “politician”. He flew and drove drugs into different countries and distributed them in mass amounts. He was making billions and billions of dollars. In the article “Mexico’s Drug War” by Brianna Lee it states, “In 2018, homicides hit a new high at more than twenty-eight thousand; many were linked to drug cartels.” This is a lot of deaths, cartels have one goal and one goal, only. It’s to distribute, sell a lot of narcotics to get money and to gain power.
In conclusion, there are many different things to talk about, regarding American border and immigration. Not everyone is happy with the current president we have, and some aren’t happy with what his views are, regarding the border and other subjects. The wall is probably the most talked about when talking about any American politics, and it is important for our safety. There are some dangerous people coming into our country and harming our citizens, and well, the others are not so harmful. Maybe the immigrants are looking for a better job or a better life. Either way they are still breaking the law.
Works Cited
- Donald Glover, Childish Gambino, “This Is America”,
- Lucy Rodgers, and Dominic Bailey. “Trump Wall – All You Need to Know about US Border in Seven Charts.” BBC News, BBC, 21 Jan. 2019, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46824649. This article is about the US-Mexico border. Many people have been talking about this wall that Trump wants. Some people are for it and other people are against it, there’s 2 sides to everything. The article also shows multiple graphs and visuals of what the wall would look like, and how much it would cost to build.
- Nakamura, David. “’Crime Will Fall!’: Trump’s New Rallying Cry for Border Wall Echoes Old Strategy of Inflating Dangers Posed by Immigrants.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 23 Jan. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/crime-will-fall-trumps-new-rallying-cry-for-border-wall-echoes-old-strategy-of-inflating-dangers-posed-by-immigrants/2019/01/23/ec24cda4-1f2c-11e9-8e21-59a09ff1e2a1_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.995d718b58d8. This article is about how the wall would reduce crime. It makes a little sense, but people would still get by. The wall could benefit our country by reducing drug trafficking.
- McCarthy, Kevin, and House. “Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s Mostly True Claim on Visa Overstays.” @Politifact, 25 Aug. 2018, www.politifact.com/california/statements/2018/aug/24/kevin-mccarthy/mostly-true-visa-overstays-account-half-all-people/. This article is about visa cards, not the credit cards. Visas are used to stay within the United States for a certain period of time.
- Reuters. “20 Dead in Grisly Mexican Gang Battle near US Border.” New York Post, New York Post, 10 Jan. 2019, nypost.com/2019/01/10/20-dead-in-grisly-mexican-gang-battle-near-us-border/. This article is about the dastardly gangs at the border of Mexico. Especially a gang war that has been going on for a while. There was a total of 20 casualties in the brawl.
- “AP FACT CHECK: MS-13 Gang Arrests at Border Are up This Year.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, www.usnews.com/news/best-states/texas/articles/2018-04-27/ap-fact-check-ms-13-gang-arrests-at-border-are-up-this-year. This article is about the gangs and cartels near the border. It details about the illegal narcotics that are brought into the United States.
