Trumping the immigration issue

» Why building walls won't help with illegal immigration

Davie Wong
Contributor

ccording to Donald

Trump—billionaire, long-
time television personality, and
more recently, Republican Party
frontrunner—America has an
illegal immigrant problem. To
be more specific, Trump believes
that the Mexican government is
the one to blame for America’s
illegal immigrant problem.

In an interview with
NBC, he said, “The Mexican
government forces many bad
people into [America] because
they’re smart.” So how does
Trump plan to stop this?

He plans to build a wall
across the southern border of
the United States. “The Great
Wall of Trump,” as many critics
have called it, is expected to
span the entire US-Mexican
border. That is nearly 2000 miles
(nearly 3220km) of building
material and labour costs.
Trump believes that “building
a wall is easy, and it can be
done inexpensively,” but the
reality is that the wall has been
estimated to cost around $6.4
billion. For the already heavily-
in-debt economy of the United
States ($18 trillion since April of

: 2015), $6.4 billion is hardly an
: inexpensive number.

He also plans to deport

: all illegal immigrants back to

: their countries of origin. Many
: have criticized that Trump's

: plan would tear families apart

: and would be inhumane. His

: response to that was, “We have
: to keep the families together,

: but they have to go.” That

: being said, deporting millions

: of families can’t be cheap.

: Experts have estimated that it

: will cost somewhere between

: $400 and $600 billion to deport
: an estimated 11 million people

: without proper documentation
: over the course of 20 years. That
: 11 million people make up 6.4

: per cent of US workers.

Where will this money

: come from? Well, Trump seems
: to believe that he can make

: the Mexican government pay

: for it. In his recently published

: policy paper on immigration

: reform, he states that Mexico,

: “must pay for the wall and, until
: they do, the United States will,

: among other things: impound

: all remittance payments derived
: from illegal wages; increase fees
: on all temporary visas issued to

: Mexican CEOs and diplomats

: (and if necessary cancel them);

: increase fees on all border

: crossing cards... increase fees

: on all NAFTA worker visas from
: Mexico... and increase fees at

: ports of entry to the United

: States from Mexico...”

To make the Mexican

: government pay, Trump will take
: it out on their citizens. It is as
: twisted as it sounds.

But will it work? In 2006,

of fencing, barriers, and
checkpoints. In reality, the fence
is still incomplete to this day
because of lack of funding from
Congress. If Trump gets his wish

. and the bill for the building ofa
: wall along the southern border
: is passed, it’s unlikely that

: construction along the entire

: border will ever be finished

: : due to the mammoth scale of

: President George W. Bush signed !
: into law, the Secure Fence Act.
: This Act was supposed to help
: curb illegal immigration by

: authorizing the construction

the project and the amount of

: funding it would take.

Is it worth it? Trump seems

: to believe so. However, he fails
: to recognize that since 2007,

 

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more people are leaving America
to go to Mexico than coming to
America from Mexico. Under the
Obama Administration, illegal
immigration has been curbed

: down to a level never before

: thought possible. Has it been

: completely stopped? No, but for
: the first time, it’s moving ina

: downward trend.

Trump wants to split

: millions of families apart

: and set America even further

: behind economically, all for an
: immigration problem that has
: already been fixed.

 

Dislike button

» How social media creates a vortex of outrage with no solution

 
 
  
  

Elliot Chan
Opinions Editor
M opinions
@theotherpress.ca

ecil the lion, the drowned

Syrian boy, and even Kony
2012: it seems as though social
media today is a place where
we air our grievances. Yet, after
we've blown enough hot air at
a topic, we move on to the next
one. Social media is a great
place to gain an audience, but it

seems as though awareness is as :
: especially slotted in between

effective as a like button.

There is so much misguided :
: pictures, selfies, and images

: of food. Many weren't only

: outraged by the migrant crisis
: in Europe, but also by the fact
: that social media is now the

: platform people use to upset,

: guilt, and shame.

information floating around
the Internet today that we
aren't solving critical problems
intelligently; we prefer a mob
mentality. After the death of
Cecil the lion, the online world
became outraged by the act of
trophy hunting—and in a way,
all hunting in general. With
obvious nearsighted Western
thinking, many couldn't see
the positive side to controlled
hunting, hunting as a way to
sustain national parks and
control the population of
potentially dangerous or pesky
animals. Instead of educating
themselves, we publicly

: demanded the head of a

: Minnesota dentist. It’s this type
: of thinking that makes many

: appear hypocritical.

Social media as a vessel to

: bring awareness to the masses

: has created an audience of self-
righteous pundits that happily
: add to the noise, but do little to
: end it.

Pointing the lens at an

overlooked crisis, social media
: decided to over-share the

: image of a drowned Syrian boy
: washed on a Turkish shore.

It’s obviously a terrible sight,

newsfeed favourites: vacation

Yes, we are all nodding

: our head saying that what has

: happened is awful, but there is
: so much horror in the world,

: why share it with our morning
: cup of coffee? Why create

: activists out of people who are
: clearly only capable of being

: idle? Why shove it down our

: throats?

I’m not a proponent of

: censorship, but Iam a strong

: supporter of context. So many
: people who’ve seen the dead

: Syrian boy are oblivious to

: the current crisis. They see a

: dead toddler and they react

: without thinking. Blinded by
: rage, all they are able to do is

? condemn whatever wrongdoing
: is taking place in the world.

: This is our crisis. This isa

: problem. The world of social

: media has become so easily

: manipulated that we are now
: zombies to whatever power of
: persuasion the networks want
: to use against us. People are

: reading misinformation sourced
: by other misinformation, and
: that leads to a vicious cycle of
: misguided points-of-view. We
: don’t know what we're talking
: about, and, when we do, we

: have no way of acting, no

: solution, just stealth-shaming
: others.

There needs to be a change

: in the way we consume and
: discuss content and crisis :
: online. Is a comment thread the :
: best way to have an intelligent:
: discourse? I don’t think so; I

: think it’s more of a toilet bowl
: we are all vomiting into.

   

Image via thinkstock