Serious Flaws in Building the Wall

Here are a few flaws in building the Wall between the U.S. and Mexico:

1. There is hysteria unrelated to actual border conditions.
As the Wall Street Journal put it, "Border apprehensions were 192,000 last year, but that's down from 981,000 a decade ago. Pew estimates that about 11.1 million unauthorized immigrants live in the U.S. (3.5% of the population), and 52% are Mexicans. That share is falling every year amid rising illegal entries from Asia, Central America and sub-Saharan Africa. Most of these aliens arrive legally but overstay their visas."

2. The terrain of much of the border is not conducive to fencing.
A television station in Albuquerque, New Mexico arranged for an aerial survey of the border and found a number of areas in which building a fence would be very difficult. No matter how long Trump has been proposing to build the Wall, he has never done a survey to determine building conditions.

3. Trump's obsession with the southern border and relative indifference to visa overstays suggests a bias against certain illegal immigrants.
Trump thinks Mexican immigrants are "killers" and "criminals," while apparently never having used such invective against other illegal immigrant groups.

4. A physical wall is duplicative, ineffective and unnecessary.
Cato Institute scholar David Bier explains that we have more than 600 miles of border fencing already. Moreover, "Tunnels are typically used more for drug smuggling but they are still a serious vulnerability in any kind of physical barrier." Walls can defeated by ladders and ramps.

5. This is a boondoggle of the worst sort.
"For the full 1,000 miles, Trump's 30-foot wall (with a 10-foot tunnel barrier) would cost $31.2 billion, according to the best estimate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineers --that is $31.2 million per mile," -- as Bier notes.

6. Building a wall will be a huge expansion of federal power and land.
A bill to deny any use of state land to build the Wall is pending in the New Mexico state legislature.

7. Trump is actually making apprehension and deportation of criminals harder.
The Obama administration already prioritized deportation of violent criminals. An immigration lawyer explains that contrary to the Obama administration, the Trump order "prioritizes nearly everything." He points out, "Labeling every person a 'priority' is like highlighting every word in a textbook."

8. There is no way Mexico is going to pay for the Wall.
Mexico has made it crystal clear that it will not pay for the Wall. A proposed tariff has drawn a lot of opposition and stealing remittances going back to Mexico is probably illegal.

9. The notion of a "sanctuary city" is a misnomer.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are free to apprehend individuals wherever they want. What is in question is the extent to which local law enforcement can be required to participate.

10. Cutting off aid to cities has consequences.
There will be shortfalls in everything from schools to roads to anti-poverty programs to health care. These can and will be attributable to President Trump.

There is reason to believe that when the many shortfalls of building the Wall are much more fully aired, the will and enthusiasm to follow through will evaporate. (The source for these ten points can be found in: Jennifer Rubin, "10 huge flaws in Trump's immigration directives," The Washington Post, January 26, 2017). I have taken some liberties with her language.