We need immigration reform in America. The current system protects neither the immigrant from unlawful work practices, nor the American worker from lower wages. Donald Trump focuses on the American worker’s side, and he would be the first to say that we have a tremendous problem. His website states that Americans have lost countless jobs, our infrastructure is falling apart, and we continue to support illegal immigrants and send foreign aid to Mexico (“Immigration Reform”). While almost everyone in America agrees that immigration reform needs to happen, experts are united in the belief that Donald Trump’s plan is not the best way to do that, and there are several reasons. Donald Trump’s proposal is fight back against the Mexican government. …show more content…
In 2006, the Bush administration tried to fence off the border. 670 miles of fencing cost the government 2.4 billion dollars (Kessler). Trump is not talking about fencing the border off, he is talking about walling it off. A similar project in Israel to wall off Palestine cost 2.6 billion or 8 billion per every thousand miles (Kessler). But the two are not as similar as they might seem. Israel’s wall was mostly electric fence with a small amount of concrete wall. Based on Israel’s wall, a wall on the border with Mexico would cost 42 billion dollars. That price tag would probably decline because the government would get a deal for buying in such bulk, but an estimator for a major construction company said that a thousand mile wall along the Mexican border would cost at least 25 billion dollars to build (Kessler). Securing the land to build the wall would also be costly (Capps). In seven years the upkeep cost to maintain the wall will have passed the 8 billion dollar mark, and will cost the United States over a billion dollars a year to keep even if Mexico pays for it (Friedman). A wall separating the United States and Mexico will be costly no matter who pays for …show more content…
Trump says that Mexico will pay for it, but the sitting Mexican president has said that “I am not paying for your f****** wall” (Capps). If the Mexican government will not pay for the wall, Trump will force the Mexican people to. The American government could impound all remittances headed to Mexico from illegal immigrants in the United States using an obscure portion of the Patriot Act. Every year this amounts to 10 billion dollars going back to Mexico. Simply banning these payments will not stop the money from reaching Mexico It will simply force the money to the black market or cause Mexicans to try more desperately to get to America in order to get access to money (Friedman). Without family or friends in the United States sending money, Mexico’s poor would try even harder to get across the border. Raising fees on border crossings would violate several treaties and Mexico would just raise them back. A tariff on Mexican goods would result in a depression that would hurt both countries (Friedman). It is hard to get Mexico to pay for the wall in a way that does not hurt America