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No one is for open borders. This is a marketing attempt by Republicans, making it sound they are "strong" and going to "protect us from caravans of illegal aliens, MS13 members, and terrorists". At the same time the Republican party is trying to make it sound like Democrats don't care about security, want to let everyone in, and we can all sing Kumbaya while holding hands.
The truth is this....
Illegal immigration is down over the past decade, and crime is down as well. Illegal immigration is still taking place, but it's happening at the ports of entry - not in the middle of the desert. Walls are ineffective - they are clearly just tunneling under them. Walls are less of a deterrence and more of a hindrance.
The other day during the State of the Union address Trump talked about El Paso, Texas. He said they built a wall in El Paso and crime went down by over thirty percent. The truth is crime went down in El Paso by thirty-four percent BEFORE they built the wall. God only knows how much they spent on the wall in El Paso, but it had zero effect on crime.
The problem is this is a signature campaign promise and a slogan - We've all heard them chanting it at Trump rallies over and over again. It's a great slogan - it's short and powerful. But it's wrong. If a wall costs a million dollars per mile and a fence costs $100k a mile, and a fence works exactly the way a wall works, we need to be building fences - not walls. But changing "build a fence" sounds weak.
We are not going to be building a wall the entire length of our border with Mexico. It will cost untold billions if not trillions, and will do very little to change illegal immigration or drugs coming across the border.
If Trump and the Republican party were serious about stopping illegal immigration and drugs coming across our border, they would be focused on the ports of entry where the bulk of illegal activity is happening.
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