In his essay, “The Fence of Lies,” Mario Vargas Llosa explores the potential consequences of building a wall across the Mexican-American border. He argues that, if built, the wall would be ineffective and a waste of resources. He proposes that the money allotted for the border wall be used instead to offer better job opportunities to Latin American citizens within their own borders. However, this proposal is unrealistic as it offers no real solutions to the economic problem of illegal immigration, nor is it an effective plan. Vargas Llosa’s main stance is that the United States government ought not to fund the border wall because it will cost around 6 billion and will “soon be as full of holes as swiss cheese” (Vargas Llosa 49), and …show more content…
This certainly will slow the development of a wall, but cannot stop it, as people can be bought out eventually. The other arguments Vargas Llosa uses end up harming his thesis rather than helping it. He writes that Hispanic immigrants sent 45 billion dollars home to their families. He then guesses that the immigrants keep roughly 4 or 5 times that amount, spending it in the United States. This support is flawed on multiple levels. First, the credibility of this argument is dubious, as it relies on an estimation. Also, the original statistic of 45 billion dollars looks at both illegal and legal immigrants. It is not immigration the wall seeks to stop, but simply illegal immigration. Moreover, would not illegal immigrants send more money home than a quarter of their income, as they are not in this country as legal citizens? If this is true, illegal immigrants act not as a boost to the economy but leeches sucking jobs and money. Finally, the argument which truly bites Vargas Llosa in the back is his suggestions on how to combat the problem without the wall. He advises that the money be redirected to build factories in Latin America where would-be illegal immigrants could work. However, 6 billion dollars is not enough to fix the economies of 20 countries, especially when our own economy is floundering. Besides, workers in a Mexican factory would still look across the border and see better wages, better benefits, and a better place to be.
All through America's history it always had a presidential election every four years, and last years presidential election campaign there were two leading candidates, so to ensure their victory, they both made promises significant changes, creation. All through last year's campaign, a candidate named Donald J. Trump made several promises, and one of his promises could change the way of life in American. Mr.Trump won last years presidential election, and all eyes were on him to the promise vowed to do if and when he is president. That one promise which is opposed by six in ten Americans is that President Trump promised a 'big, beautiful wall' that would be placed on the Mexican and American border. President Trump Proposed that he could construct the wall for 8 billion, but now it is known that wall will cost about $21.6 billion for the wall and that the $21.6 plan doesn't include the $150 million a year to maintain. America shouldn’t Build a Wall along the US/Mexico Border because of the high cost and how it will affect America's economy, also thought the wall would keep out undocumented immigrant from crossing the US border but it is shown that undocumented immigrants contribute over $11 billion to the US economy each year, and lastly the environment that is near the border, and how it will be affected and disturbed due to the construction the border wall.
The wall that Bowden discusses is the barrier between the United States and the country of Mexico to the south. He uses the terms fences, borders, and barricades. Part of the wall is constructed of metal. Other portions are concrete. Each of the materials that are used is hard and designed to be uncomfortable and discouraging to those who see it, effectively creating both a physical and psychological barrier between acceptable and unacceptable populations. The purpose of the wall, according to Bowden, is to keep a certain population out of the United States. Mexican illegal immigrants are crossing the border into the United States in large numbers. For the American government, illegal immigration is an unacceptable set of circumstances and the purpose of erecting a wall was to keep those people from crossing the border into the United States. Bowden explains that the wall is effective only until the point when inclination and desire of the excluded population overcomes the existence of the wall. People will then cross over it or crash through it. If their will is strong enough, then the people will be able to overcome the wall, making its presence outdated and ineffectual. Since people overcome the wall, there is no need to keep the wall or to provide moneys to either enlarge it or for the upkeep of the wall. Each
The author also uses firsthand stories from people to show the ineffectiveness of the wall. One specific story the author mentions is of a man on the Mexican side who lives close to the wall and jumps it regularly just to go to a bar and then comes back the same night. I think this story is already proving that the wall is ineffective and with time it will become more ineffective. With the ineffectiveness increasing so is the support. One man interviewed said “When they first built it, it was not a bad idea—cars were crossing illegally from Mexico and the Border Patrol would chase them. But it’s so ugly.”
Many say that the border wall is a bad idea, but others say it has some benefits. President Trump said in his campaign that he wanted “a great, great wall.” This was to ensure that anyone with no papers doesn’t take the jobs that “Americans” need. Since there are 2 sides of this problem they should both be addressed.
Lourdes Medrano is a strong advocate for immigration reform to strengthen the border and the security manning the border. She supports her argument by showing how President George W. Bush’s surge on the US-Mexican border. President Bush doubled the man power along the border, while leading the technological advance on the border. Medrano shows how President Bush brought immigration reform into the spotlight, when roughly 1.6 million immigrants where entering the US illegally. Now the number is historically lower at 356,873 immigrants. The budget for the border patrol has been steadily increasing 1.1 billion in 2001 to 3.5 billion in 2012. Medrano presents how President Bush signed the Secure Fence Act in 2006, which authorized 700 miles of fencing. This his directly contributed to 651 miles of fencing created by 2012. Surge on immigration reform has also doubled the man power from 2001 to 2012, which is exactly what President Bush envisioned. With the border patrol now being a division of Homeland Security and help from the national guard, they have grown much bigger then what they once were. Even the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says that “our borders have, in fact, never been stronger.”
Donald Trump wants to build a wall. Donald Trump wants to build a wall for a few, invalid reasons, and yet he is the frontrunner in the race for Republican presidential nominee. Everyday, more people begin to support the idea of building a border between the United States and Mexico. Supporters offer a few reasons - safety, the economy, legality - but few supporters look deeper than Trump’s explanations. Supporters of a wall are surprisingly ignorant about their own causes, as well as the opposition to their cause. Becoming educated about the topic of a border wall would show the supporters that a border wall would actually be ineffective and unnecessary because the wall would fail to stop over half the illegal immigrants that enter the United States, the concept of a border wall is against what the United States stands for, and the border wall would be a costly venture that
Immigration is a cornerstone of America and is the basis for the founding of the thirteen colonies. There are very few families that did not originate as immigrants to the country at some point from the first settlers to modern times. However, the issue of illegal immigration, particularly from Latin America, has grown in recent years and must be addressed. There is an estimated 11.7 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States mainly overstaying visas or crossing over the border illegally. My solution to the problem of immigration is to reinforce the southern U.S. border because the initial problem must be solved before attending to current migrants. The economic effect of migrant labor is an overall net gain, which must be redistributed to the places with many immigrants. Finally, the current undocumented
In the article “Trump outlines immigration specifics,” Jeremy Diamond and Sara Murray analyze Republican candidate Donald Trump’s latest immigration policy proposal and demonstrate how his unrealistic plan could cause more harm than good. For many years now, the topic of immigration has always been a problematic one and with reason. One side argues that immigrants are taking American jobs, while the other side maintains that immigrants are actually helping the US economy. While both sides rarely see eye to eye on multiple issues, one thing that they can both agree on is that the current US immigration system is, indeed, broken. Because of this issue, Trump has proposed an immigration plan that would require the US to build a wall along the
I am writing this letter to respectively bring your attention to the Mexican-American border, its damaging effect on the United States economy, and potential solutions to this specific situation which has become known as the Border Crisis. As you may already know, the border runs from Tijuana, Baja California to Tamaulipas and Texas. According to the International Boundary and Water Commission, the border’s length is 1,954 miles and is the most frequently crossed international border, mainly by undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America. As an attempt to contain this influx of illegal migration, former President George W. Bush signed the Secure Fence Act of 2006 stating, “This bill will help protect American people. This bill will make our borders more secure. It is an important step toward immigration reform.” While Mr. Bush may have had the United States’ safety at heart, one must question if the border fence is actually helping the economy or hurting it? There are several problems that have risen following the creation of the border fence; immigrants coming from The Northern Triangle have actually increased, Texas has become the deadliest entry state, undocumented and unaccompanied children are costing taxpayers even more, and simply maintaining the border fence is a very high cost.
Imagine looking over the desert landscape of the southern United States and seeing an enormous concrete wall. Few people may say that the wall is a hindrance to the scenery, but many would say that the wall is blocking something. It would be meant to block immigrants from illegally entering the country. However, the real question would be how effective the wall is at preventing illegal entrance. I believe that the wall that would be placed on the southern border is not necessary to stop illegal immigration in the United States because of the costs, effectiveness, and other less costly options that could help reduce illegal immigration.
Although a border wall may make it more difficult for people to cross into the US illegally, it can’t completely prevent it. All it takes is an unsupervised hole in the wall for people to pass through. So, there are better ways to prevent illegal immigration. Instead of spending 25 billion dollars on building a wall, why don’t we focus on higher security measures on the border. For example, there could be more surveillance on the border and a more in depth immigration process could be established. So, even though a border wall would make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to pass through, establishing higher security measures could be just as productive and less expensive as
One important reason that a border wall between the U.S and Mexico can’t protect American jobs and reduce crime is that the border wall is too expensive and impractical because according to UpFront Magazine, Patricia Smith, 4-3-17. “Congress will fund the project, which will cost more than 21 billion of dollars and it will take until the end of 2020 to complete.” It will take 4 years for the wall to be complete and by the end of 2020 President Trump may not be the president of
Decreasing illegal immigration was Donald Trump’s main plan for the wall. Research has shown that only about 9,000 of the average hundreds of thousands of people that attempt to illegally immigrate across the border each
According to “Driscoll Sally & Bourassa, Cheryl “Supporters of the wall include the Center for immigration Studies; they maintain that without stronger efforts to stem the flow of illegal immigrants, public infrastructure, from hospitals to schools, will disintegrate from the burden of caring for so many people. Others groups argue that an influx of illegal immigrants, willing to work at any price, drives down wages for low-skilled American workers. American see these problems cannot be solved without the protection of some
Borders are ubiquitous; some are physical, others are not; some are rigid, others are not, but all have the same purpose, that is, to prevent two groups from interacting in a particular way. The border that exists between the United States and Mexico is no different, as author Leslie Marmon Silko can attest to in her work Border Patrol State. Even though her work is dated by roughly two decades, her message still persists, perhaps more clearly now than ever, in light of presidential candidate, Donald Trump’s, proposal to construct a multi-billion dollar physical border separating Mexico and the US. This topic is analyzed by comedian John Oliver’s in his piece, Border Wall where he, similarly to Silko, describes the asinine struggle the government