President Donald Trump’s, “Good fences make good neighbors” mentality was the root of his campaign in 2016. Not only is this mentality threatening the ecosystem and the lives of over 100 already endangered species living on the U.S.-Mexican border, it’s also crumbling our democracy to its core, causing national havoc within our government.
Along with the fact that this issue caused the country’s most recent government shutdown, Trump declared a national emergency in order to extend his power over the matter. Our nation’s peace of mind has always remained intact knowing that the power of checks and balances has always been the foundation of our democracy.
But with a national emergency in place, the president stands to gain over 100 special provisions, The Atlantic reported. Under the National Emergencies Act of 1975, the president can deem any perceived “crisis” as a “national emergency,” and by doing this the president can spend federal funds without the permission of Congress.
In the past, such drastic measures have been deemed plausible because people were led to believe that the president has the nation’s best interest in mind. Yet, 59 percent of Americans oppose a southern border wall, according to CBS News.
So why is this border so important to Trump? Thinking back, his main promise was the construction of this wall and he insisted during the campaign that Mexico would pay for it.
He claimed that the number of undocumented immigrants and drugs coming in through the Mexican border was a big problem that was hindering the country’s economy and safety. However, arrest numbers have fallen from 2 million in the early 2000s to 400,000 last year, BBC News reported. There is no data to prove that illegal immigration hurts our economy; rather, it will eventually help with long-term economic growth, as seen in PBS NewsHour.
The fact of the matter is whether the wall gets built or not, it isn’t really important for the country’s security. Rather, it serves as a symbol for Trump’s political triumph.
The desire for a wall is an extenuation of the same imperialist mentality that killed off Native Americans. How is it that wall supporters want to build a border that separates Mexican immigrants from the land that was originally theirs?
Along with costing $5.7 billion of taxpayer money on something Americans don’t need or want, the border wall threatens the ecological balance of the Sky Islands region and Rio Grande Valley in Texas, Vice reports.
“Ecosystems are fluid, with animals flowing through them regularly. And obstacles like roads and fences put a stranglehold on individual populations, cutting them off from food resources, or outright killing them,” Vice writer Grennan Milliken said.
Though, as everyone knows, the president is not concerned with the planet’s ecosystems, and the fact remains that his current plan to build this wall despite America’s disapproval only perpetuates the xenophobic mentality he spreads among Americans.
