The further we get into Donald Trump’s presidency, the more it feels like we are living in a worst-case alternate dimension. Feelings are more valid than facts, and chronic liars are allowed in the highest office in the country.
On Feb. 15, Trump bypassed Congress’ decision to block his attempt at building a border wall by declaring it a national emergency.
Even Trump’s fellow Republicans were hesitant to support this decision.
“The whole idea that presidents… can declare an emergency and somehow usurp the separation of powers and get into the business of appropriating money for specific projects without Congress being involved, is a serious constitutional question,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said.
To make matters even more bizarre, Trump contradicted his declaration by saying, “I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster. I just want to get it done faster, that’s all.”
In light of this event, it is necessary to once again discuss an emphatically unnecessary border wall.
Border wall supporters believe the wall will curtail human and drug trafficking, so it is imperative to look to experts in those fields for the manner in which they operate.
According to Arizona State University Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention Research, “Most identified foreign-born victims of sex trafficking are brought into the U.S. by using legal documents in illegal ways. Sex traffickers will take legal documents for entry into the United States from one victim and use it in the trafficking of other victims. Counterfeit documents, ‘fiancé visas,’ and illegal border crossings have also been identified as means of entry for sex trafficking victims.”
That must mean that drug trafficking is the real issue the border wall will solve right?
Wrong.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) 2018 National Drug Threat Assessment, “The most common method employed by these transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) involves transporting illicit drugs through U.S. port-of-entries in passenger vehicles with concealed compartments or commingled with legitimate goods on tractor-trailers,” the report read. “Other cross-border smuggling techniques employed by Mexican TCOs criminals include the use of subterranean tunnels, which originate in Mexico and lead into safe-houses on the U.S. side of the border.”
Claiming that a border wall will impede human and drug trafficking is like trying to use a Snickers wrapper as a condom. That’s not how it works.
I am not certain what world supporters of the border wall are living in, but it is not reality. The only phenomenon a border wall will result in is an “us and them” mentality, further dividing a world that is already broken.
Even if we disregard the fact that a wall will not solve the issue of trafficking, there is still the harmful ecological impact it will have.
What, you expected the wall to be built in the middle of the Rio Grande?
Construction of a border wall will bisect the geographic range of 1,506 native animals and plants, including 62 species that are listed as critically endangered. A team of conservation experts, including Edward O. Wilson, famed biologist and naturalist, argued in a paper published in Bioscience that a border wall puts these habitats at risk. The border wall could disconnect a third of 346 native wildlife species from 50 percent or more of their range that lies south of the border. That raises the risk to their survival by shrinking and isolating animal populations and limiting their ability to roam for food, water and mates. Fencing also traps wildlife from escaping fires, floods or heat waves.
The ocelot is one of the many animals threatened by the potential border wall. What monster could possibly advocate for the extinction of such an adorable animal?
A border wall will not solve the inherent issues of smuggling, but it will cause irreparable damage to the ecosystem.
The Award-Winning Texas A&M University-Kingsville Student Publication
