As President Trump began his rise to presidency in the summer of 2015, liberals have repeatedly attacked him for wanting to build “a wall.” They deemed this vision as racist and xenophobic. Trump got the same reaction during his last speech to Congress when he brought up the “point-based immigration system.”
The left wishes to maintain a policy of unfiltered, illegal immigration through the southern border and award immigration preference based on luck rather than deservedness and usefulness to the United States.
First, a clarification: building a wall is far from unprecedented. Modern countries such as South Korea, Israel, France, Britain, China, India, Norway and Spain have walls. Even Mexico has a wall on its southern border — and with good reason.
To continue to exist as a safe country, the United States must know who is entering it. It’s the concept of “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” While dangerous immigrants may be barred from legally entering, they can find the weak link, our southern border, and enter there; just like the hundreds of thousands of others who pursue that option each year.
The wall is also fiscally prudent, meaning that building the wall makes financial sense. The center for Immigration Studies (CIS.org) estimates that if the wall stopped 200,000 illegal immigrants over the next decade, roughly 10 percent of the expected illegal immigrant intake over that time, it would already pay for itself. If the wall stopped 100,000 illegal immigrants, the wall would net taxpayers $64 billion over a decade.
The common argument from the left is that illegal immigrants cannot legally receive government benefits, and hence do not cost us very much. While this is true, illegal immigrants actually do qualify for some government programs, namely the following: WIC, Head Start, Emergency Medicaid. Furthermore, they are legally required to receive a free K-12 education, with the US government footing the bill. Another source of costs are law enforcement/detention/deportation costs.
How much does this add up to? The National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine estimates that each undocumented immigrant creates a fiscal burden of $74,722 throughout their life. This number swells to $94,391 when the children of said illegal immigrants are counted; essentially, when illegal immigrants cross the border and have a child, that child is an American citizen (commonly known as an “anchor baby”) and is entitled to all the rights of our country (Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security).
In summation, the wall is logically necessary and fiscally practical. I support the President in his efforts to stem the flow of mass illegal immigration.
I also wholeheartedly support point-based immigration. In summary, point-based immigration allocates points to immigrants who fulfill certain requirements, such as willingness to work, proficiency in the native language, financial security or degree of education.
The left despises this system, as it would put immigrants they work so hard for to procure preferential immigration status for at a severe disadvantage.
Our current system, the Diversity Immigrant Visa program, known as the green-card lottery, allots green cards almost at random. The only criteria for extra green cards is low immigration rates to the United States. This system benefits chaotic countries such as Somalia, Liberia and Lebanon. With a point-based system, these “essential” immigrants would be replaced by high-net-worth investors, foreign students with Ivy-League MBA’s and workers.
President Trump’s plan to strengthen our borders and increase the quality of our immigrants sounds promising. I implore him to follow through on these promises in order to Make America Great Again.
