President Donald Trump’s Border Wall: Great or Waste?

Although many were shocked when current President Donald Trump announced his initial running for presidency, and the nation was astonished by his winning of the race, what took more people by surprise was his first plan of action: building a wall between the U.S. and Mexican border. This oath has turned into the main argument between Trump and democratic leaders.

More recently, this has become a much bigger problem. Trump has even decided he will follow through with a government shut-down if congress does not provide funding for this project.
Trump has estimated the total cost of this wall to be around 10 million to 12 million dollars, but it has been projected to be close to 5 billion. This has caused a lot of controversy because many people believe that money could be put to “better use.” A good example of better use is that 5 billion dollars can provide Medicaid to 1.4 million people. This is especially frustrating to the people who are against the building wall due to the fact that there are many different projects of higher importance, such as the Medicaid, that would be more beneficial.

President Trump has a history of being publicly derogatory towards Hispanics and putting the race in a box of all being illegal immigrants, hence his initial reasoning for the wall being built. His main social platform for this is Twitter, where he tweets condescending statements about other politicians and world leaders. In an interview, Donald Trump said “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” This has made many Americans believe Trump to be close minded and immature, presumably with good reasoning.

This proposed wall is an example of an ethical issue with two sides, for and against. The basics of this wall consist of the following: 30 feet tall and built of solid concrete. Besides the obvious questions raised of overall effectiveness of the wall, those whom are against it have backed up they’re opinions respectively.

The first negative impact, which happens to be the least acknowledged, is the effect it will have on the environment on both sides of the wall. It will destroy extreme amounts of habitats home to species that are endangered, thus the possibility of wiping them out completely. This list of animals includes jaguars, ocelots, and the Mexican gray wolf. Wildlife biologist Jeff Corwin has told NBC news in an interview that many different types of species depend on the areas surrounding the border for survival. Whether they cross the border for obtaining natural resources, for migration, or even because they reside where the wall would be located, building it would be a travesty for many different species. It goes as far as being proven that there are hundreds of different species that would not be able to fly over or find a way to get past the wall, therefore leaving them stranded on one side without viable resources they need for survival.

The next negative impact is how it will, and already has, affect the economy as a whole. A great example of how it is affecting the economy is what has happened in San Diego since the wall was first announced and changes were made to distributions across the border. In 2015, a report came out stating that 6 billion dollars was brought into San Diego every year in commerce from across the border. Once the policies changed stating that was no longer prohibited, the city lost that income. Later after more restrictions were applied, it is estimated that 7.2 billion dollars were lost and 62,000 jobs were eliminated, leaving many citizens unemployed with no source of income.
It is not only San Diego that has been affected by this economic crisis, either. The Rio Grande river is also located where the wall would cross. This river, which goes through a large chunk of Texas, is home to multiple vacation hot spots, tourist attractions, and hotels that draw in a large number of tourists yearly thus creating a large source of income. Many local shops with independent owners reside here. The destruction of this area would diminish all of these by taking away a beautiful location to have them.