I believe the Mexican Border Wall is pointless, and that it is simply a money sink-hole for taxpayers: “Some $2.4 billion has been spent since 2005 on a still-unfinished project to erect more than 600 miles of new fence along the US-Mexico border... A report, released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), also says $6.5 billion will be needed to maintain the new fencing over the next 20 years. So far, it has been breached 3,363 times, requiring $1,300 for the average repair.”(Wood, CSmonitor.com)
So not only have we already spent 2.4 billion on a wall that fails, as “Smugglers and illegal immigrants keep defeating the fence. They establish new routes around it, build ramps to drive over it, dig tunnels under it, blow-torch holes through it, cut down metal posts acting as vehicle barriers and replace them with dummy cardboard posts.”(Reed, Examiner.com), but we are also constantly having to repair this wall costing even more money. What is the point of investing so much into something that is not working? Not to mention that there is still a couple thousand miles of land that isn’t walled.
Logically this wall isn’t a great idea, "When our nation is in the midst of an economic crisis, we wonder how many teacher salaries, police officers, miles of road, or school books could be financed instead of throwing large amounts of money for bricks to fix a problem that requires serious, long-term solutions."(Salas, CSmonitor.com)
Not to mention the wall is cutting South Texan farmer’s land in half, and creating some environmental concerns as well, “Ecologists have long warned that the border wall - actually a series of walls - will have big impacts on wildlife and the region's fragile and unique ecology…’There is no question that jaguars in the U.S. and northern Mexico would be significantly affected by the wall,’ says Joe Cook, expert in mammal biology at the University of New Mexico.”(Leahy, IPS)
The US government should just stop wasting its money and devise a better plan to deal with illegal immigration; either with an immigration reform or an armed border patrol with shoot-to-kill orders (more of a scare tactic).
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In Under One blog Andrew talks about the wall that's being built along the Mexican-American border. This was a topic that I hadn't given much thought about. Much of the news lately has covered health care and the Afghanistan war. So I think it was good Andrew choose to bring this one to light.
ReplyDeleteThrough various news articles Andrew makes some solid points. I knew we were spending large amounts of money on keeping illegals from entering our country, but I didn't realize how much. It's astounding that over 2.4 billion has been spent already and about 6.5 million will be needed on maintaining the wall due to illegals breaching it.
Here I thought the wall had helped a little. Apparently it's been breached 3,363 times. So much for that. Of course the taxpayers will continue to pay for this. As Andrew reports, we could be spending the money on things that actually have real effective change. City schools, emergency services and hospitals could always put taxpayer money to good use. Instead of in the "sinkhole" that the border wall has become.
Although I don't agree with the shoot to kill method as a scare tactic, I do agree that another avenue needs to be taken. Obviously,the wall hasn't worked and has little effect for the large amounts of money that's already been spent.