To Fence or Not To Fence Essay examples

    Last year when Donald Trump became President of the United States he wanted to build a wall that would seperate the U.S. from Mexico. He wanted to do this to stop any illegal drugs, terrorists, or weapons from crossing the border. Athough it was a good idea, many people were

Whatever happened to the 854 miles of border fencing that American citizens were promised on the U.S. southern border? If the government really wanted to stop illegal immigration, they should pursue it a bit more aggressively. This is not something that can be fixed overnight, but the government needs to at least show some means of urgency toward this serious matter since “only 12 miles of the 854 miles of border fencing called for in the Secure Fence Act have been constructed” (“Border Fencing Is Crucial…”). It seems that the government obviously must not care too much about American security. Keeping the border wide open creates a major passageway for illegal immigrants, drug smuggling, and terrorism. It was found that “in 2005, 155,000 foreign nationals from countries other than Mexico were apprehended attempting to cross our land border with Mexico…these individuals originated from country’s of national security concern” (“Border Fencing Is Crucial…”). It is obvious that other countries know that

Although the issue with illegal immigration is prominent, the solution is not as clear. Some say the annual quota of 20,000 Mexicans should be raised (Anderson 65). This does not help the fact that there is a 5-9 year wait for over 1 million immigrants to enter the country legally (Anderson 57). "Most illegals are of working age and looking for jobs" (Anderson 57). They don't want to wait years to get a job. Otherwise, there would not be near as many people crossing the border every year. Some people call for a border fence in order to lower the number of illegals (Marcovitz 27). In 2006, Congress began a $2.5 billion project to fence nearly 700 miles of the Mexican border (Marcovitz 27). Many are still pushing for the entire border to be fenced off (Marcovitz 27). Currently, only about one third of the border has been fenced, and over 1,000 miles still remain open (Marcovitz 28). The fence is patrolled by border officers. In 1992 there were about 3,500 border patrol officers. In 2010 that number had grown to over 20,000 (Marcovitz

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

Jeff Corwin stated that “If this border wall actually happens, it will be an environmental catastrophe. Essentially, what it’s doing is cutting through nature’s bridge, which connects Central America to North America and South America.” Which in many cases this can be supported but then again many people work very hard to become a citizen in the United States for many to come across the border to get here illegally and to most this is unfair. To make another main statement given the rising global instability in North Korea and the Middle East with a strong and supportive border it would be harder for terrorist to get their hands on biological, chemical or radiological weapons. With an insecure border it makes it easier for them to bring them into the United States and launch a devastating attack on the United States.

One of the pros for building the fence is that “control of the borders are required for national security”. With the rise of terrorist groups around the world including

In addition, several immigrants are demoralized and countless others die in their struggles to cross the border. Various border patrolmen have not only had the need to kill, but have been killed. The borders are clearly unsafe, and with approximately 1,400 immigrants crossing it everyday the U.S is very vulnerable to being in great danger and when the borders are vulnerable, the entire nation is vulnerable. If the borders were more secure, then the number of illegal immigrants sneaking into the country would reduce which would reduce many of the other issues that illegal immigrants cause. To stop the immigration issues, the nation must stop those issues at its core, being the borders. When the borders are taken care of, the issues that come along with them will also be taken care of.

Usually walls are put into places to avoid people to cross borders and keep peace but they destroy peace. Recently one could have heard in the News that Trump wants the Mexicans to pay for a wall between Mexico and the United States. This Wall should make it impossible for people to cross the border unofficially. As one could know from history classes, we had a wall in Germany for many years which was built by the winner countries of the second world war for a similar reason. Before the Wall, many people from East Germany tried to escape to West Germany where they had obviously better living conditions. It divided Germany in East and West Germany. Additionally, there was a part of Berlin, what was in the East German part, isolated from a huge wall that belonged to West Germany. This wall made it hard for the citizens of East Germany to visit West Germany. The Government of East Germany had other principles than the government of West Germany and it was not in the interest of the East German government to show their citizens how good their life could be in West Germany. After the falling of the Wall, it was possible for everyone to travel in Germany whenever they want without standing in line at the borders. But there was a big gap in wealth between East and West Germany. Even today the loans in West Germany are lower and the federal states have less money than the ones in West Germany. But in Berlin, one can visit ruins of the Berlin Wall which are colored and painted. As one could know from visiting Berlin, there is only a small part of the Wall left but at other parts, one could find the position of the wall with marked flagging on the ground. Additionally, one could buy a piece of the wall as a souvenir. Standing in front of the ruins of the Berlin wall inspires this realization: Peace is about breaking barriers not building them.

August Wilson’s Fences was centered on the life of Troy Maxson, an African American man full of bitterness towards the world because of the cards he was dealt in life amidst the 1950’s. In the play Troy was raised by an unloving and abusive father, when he wanted to become a Major League Baseball player he was rejected because of his race. Troy even served time in prison because he was impoverished and needed money so he robbed a bank and ended up killing a man. Troy’s life was anything but easy. In the play Troy and his son Cory were told to build a fence around their home by Rose. It is common knowledge that fences are used in one of two ways: to keep things outside or to keep things inside. In the same way that fences are used to keep

The United States and Mexico border fence has been a recent debate with the people because of the irresistible flow of Mexican illegal in the United States. Living in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, I may be able to see a huge wall or fence being built on our border with Mexico. Other than the economic recession we have to this day, people still have their views and opinions expressed on another topic, the “segregation” wall. Some express opinions on whether this wall will keep illegal immigrants out, others speak on how this is a total disaster both financially and emotionally as in this wall being referred to as “racist”.

Mighty Amado 43 says that “The construction of a border fence between the U.S. and Mexico would not only be an ineffective tool for controlling immigration, it would be an utter waste of government resources.” I agree with that, because it would just be a waste of taxpayers money just to build a wall that people could just climb over.

In previous years, many countries and territories around the world have attempted to build walls, and many have had very much success. For example, Most of the walls built after World War 2 and the Cold War still exist today. There were a total of 110 walls built between that time period. Professor Nazli Avdan led a study that had a goal of identifying if a border wall reduced or increased the risk of a transnational terrorist attack. This study found that since the year 1900, transnational terrorist attacks have seen a thirteen percent annual decrease in countries with border walls (Border fences reduce...attacks). This has been a real focal point that President Donald Trump has used to get people to agree with him. Another reason of his includes the disrupting of the funneling of illicit money and drugs into the United States of America (Border fences reduce...attacks). The bonus of the building of the wall is that it will be a visible sign of the government taking action.

Throughout history of the United States and Mexican border there has been multiple depths of changes and immigration. From the area trading country ownership to population changes to having a fence line created on it. Seen in Figure1, the U.S.-

Starting in 2006, the United States started to develop the wall along parts of the frontier between U.S. and Mexico. There was 670 miles of the wall authorized to be assembled, and there were many objections to it being built. Besides the oppositions, from 2006 to 2009 there was already more than 100 miles of the wall constructed (Gilman 258). Congress passed the “Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act” in 1996. The act gave power to the government to create walls or barriers along the border, and it allowed it to seize land from people if it is imperative in protecting the borderline of the country (Gilman 259). In 2006, the “Secure Fence Act” was passed that instructed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop a fence stretching from 5 different areas of the border. In 2007, there was 70 miles of the wall built in the Arizona and Mexico frontier. Since this occurrence, the government then shifted its surveillance to the border along Texas and Mexico in 2007, and started suggestions to assemble more than 100 miles of the border wall by 2008 (Gilman 260). Towards the end of 2007, the

The fence failure brings me to my next point about its faults. The fence is nowhere near complete, yet the President himself is claiming that it is complete. On the contrary, Nicole Miller reported in the “Texas International Law Journal” that “The latest reports from June 2009 reported that 633 miles of the original 700 were completed” (Miller 8). The 700 miles of fencing may have been built, but that still leaves over 1,200 miles of unsecured border. The fence has been placed only at certain points where they slow immediate entry into cities and roads. Just beyond the cities and roads the fence ends unexpectedly; so the illegal traffic simply avoids the more guarded fence and goes around. (Holt 3-4) Native American culture is being affected by the fence as well. Many Native American tribes like the Tohono O’Odham, who live