Building the Wall - Essay Sample

Introduction

President Donald Trump emulates the likes of King Herod and Emperor Qin Shi Huang who are renowned for constructing walls around the empires. The Walls of Jerusalem and the Great Wall of China stand out as exemplary architecture projects that ensured the safety of the citizens. While the ancient rulers looked to protect their empires from enemy attacks, President Trump aspires to secure America from invasion by immigrants. The United States of America has been regarded as the Land of Opportunity which is one of the ideals of the American dream. The United States has been opening doors for immigrants who aspire to study and work in the country. However, the generosity extended by the USA has led to an increase in illegal immigrants. President Trump has his eyes on the United States-Mexico border which he claims is very porous and the only solution would to be to build a wall separating the two countries. Despite Democrats' opposition and the lack of funds, President Trump has reiterated that he will ensure the border wall is constructed to prevent the uncontrolled entry of illegal immigrants.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Drug Dealers

President Trump brought up the idea of building the wall during his campaign trail across the United States. The wall is the lifeblood of President Trump's immigration policy as he looks to curb the unlawful entry of foreign aliens. Most of the illegal immigrants according to President Trump include drug dealers and human traffickers. During his State of the Union Address, President Trump described the illegal migrants as "ruthless coyotes" who taint the image of the American Dream (Tube, 2019). Drug dealers end up peddling meth, cocaine, and heroin among other drugs which have led to the destabilization of the youthful Americans. Rehabilitation centers are admitting more drug addicts who come from different social classes. There is a long history of drugs getting into America especially from South America. Pablo Escobar and now Joaquin " El Chapo" Guzman have all been known for using the United States as their primary market. The adverse effects of drugs on Americans prompted the United States government to pursue these drug lords. The rise of drug abuse in America in one way or another justifies the erection of the wall as drug dealers would be locked out of the United States.

Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is a form of modern day slavery that is thriving across the United States-Mexico border. Trafficking victims end up being sex slaves, forced labor slaves, and commercial sex workers. The fact that child trafficking has become popular is a significant concern both to the United States and Mexico governments. Smugglers and cartels such as the Sinaloa Cartel have taken over police structures in Mexico, therefore, making it hard to apprehend the traffickers (Weden, 2017). The cartels have lured many poor Mexicans into the immigration net where they promise to get them to America. For example, one would be charged $4,500 to be taken to Arizona through the Sasabe desert (Weden, 2017). The crossing is not guaranteed as the harsh weather conditions have led to the death of many Mexicans. President Trump believes that the United States government must act and ensure that the cartels don't take charge of the border affairs. (Yan, 2017). The high number of unaccompanied children is an indicator that something is wrong as most of these children end up being sex slaves. President Trump pointed out that his wall was meant to keep out such elements, as they would corrupt the American Dream in the long run.

Funding of the Wall

President Trump has used the slogan "Make America Great Again" to justify his reason for building the wall (Tube, 2019). The Democrats and a section of the public opposed this idea during the campaign period and even now when Trump's Presidency has lasted for almost two years. During his campaign, President Trump claimed that he would build the wall and ensure that Mexico funds the project. The President also pointed out that the wall would cost $10 billion where Mexico was going to foot the bill (Alfaro, 2018). Two years later, funding for the wall remains a big challenge to the Republicans and President Trump. However, public support is manifested through projects such as the GoFundTheWall which is raising money through the GoFundMe platform. Over $12 million had been raised by 2018, which shows the commitment by Trump supporters although this being a fraction of the amount required (Alfaro, 2018). The construction of the wall is not the only concern; the maintenance cost is also another factor that has to be factored in.

Shutdown and State of Emergency

The shutdown declared by President Trump was meant to push the Democrats to approve Trump's request for $5 billion towards the building of the wall. The shutdown was effected on 22 December 2018, a day after the Democrats opposed Trump's demand for the funding(Baker & Haberman, 2019). In one of the speeches, the President described the border situation as a humanitarian crisis and threatened to declare an emergency on the issue. The standoff between President Trump and the Democrats looks like it will not end anytime soon since no one is bulging. In 2019 still, President Trump declared a state of emergency on the United States-Mexico border wall (Baker, 2019). The President justified this by pointing out the need to stem drug peddling, the rise in crime and illegal immigration. White House officials have hinted that declaring an emergency will enable the president to divert funds from military programs and counternarcotic projects towards the funding of the wall. Recent developments have the Democrats looking to pass legislation that will overthrow the President's declaration of emergency (Lillis, 2019).

Conclusion

The debate about building the wall has now shifted from its importance to how it will be funded. Democrats believe that the project is expensive, unsustainable and ineffective. On the other hand, President Trump stands by his statement that "walls work and walls save lives" (Tube, 2019). The response by one of the Republicans on this was "America is made stronger by the presence of immigrants, not walls" (Pramuk, 2019). President Trump has said he doesn't have anything against immigrants as long as they get to the United States through lawful means. Illegal migrants have led to the rise of drug abuse, crime and modern day slavery. Although the motives for building the wall are ethical, political standoffs have led to a misunderstanding of the border wall. The cost of the wall is one of the drawbacks to this project, and the Congress is doing all it can to ensure that no funds are released. The shutdown and emergency declaration are proof that President Trump has prioritized the building of the wall but only time will tell as the political standoffs rise above the moral, ethical and humanitarian concerns.

References

Alfaro, M. (2018). The GoFundMe campaign to build Trump's border wall has raised over $12 million, but how much of it will actually go to the build the wall remains unclear. Retrieved from https://www.pulse.ng/bi/politics/the-gofundme-campaign-to-build-trumps-border-wall-has-raised-over-dollar12-million/8jfmqpf

Baker, P. (2019). Trump Declares a National Emergency and Provokes a Constitutional Clash. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/15/us/politics/national-emergency-trump.html

Baker, P., & Haberman, M. (2019). Trump's Wall, Trump's Shutdown and Trump's Side of the Story. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/04/us/politics/trump-wall-shutdown.html

Lillis, M. (2019). House to push back at Trump on border. Retrieved from https://thehill.com/homenews/house/431512-house-to-push-back-at-trump-on-border

Pramuk, J. (2019). Trump calls for bipartisanship in Congress - as long as he gets what he wants. Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/05/trump-urges-cooperation-on-immigration-in-state-of-the-union-address.html

Tube, Y. (2019). Donald Trump's entire 2019 State of the Union address | Full speech on CNN. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4FyVGtMa4s

Weden, A. (2017). Deadly human trafficking business on Mexico-US border. Retrieved from https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/01/deadly-human-trafficking-business-Mexico-border-160117073423022.html

Yan, H. (2017). The deadly toll of human smuggling and trafficking in the US. Retrieved from https://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/28/us/migrant-deaths-and-human-trafficking-by-the-numbers/index.html