Op-Ed: Wall just got ten feet taller
President Trump standing in front of a wall.
January 28, 2019
All views and opinions expressed in outside op-eds are those of the author and do not reflect the beliefs of Etched in Stone or its staff. If you would like to respond or continue the discussion, we invite you to submit your own op-ed here.
Since Trump was elected for president there has been much controversy over the southern wall proposal. It’s unclear whether the debates are over whether the wall will be effective or if the wall is necessary. It is very clear that the wall is inexpensive so there’s no opposing debate over that. The federal budget this year is around 4.6 trillion dollars and Trump only wants 5.7 billion for the wall. The funding is not the issue it’s the controversy between Democrats and Republicans in the house and the senate. The house and senate are so against each other that the Republicans will fight for Trump and the Democrats will do anything to not support their leader.
For example last week, House GOP voted to pay federal employees their 1st paycheck of 2019, despite the shutdown. Only 6 Democrats voted along the Republicans. It failed. Dem priority is not paying workers or opening the government. It is opposing Trump for any reason. Walls are effective in any situation whether it’s someone’s home or the southern border. Wealthy politicians build walls around their homes not because they hate the people on the outside but because they love the people on the inside. The president of the National Border Patrol Council says that border patrol agents are ecstatic that they finally have a president who is doing something about this crisis. It is extremely upsetting that I have to explain to people that a wall is necessary. Over 52,000 heroin overdose deaths in 2016, 300 americans killed each week by it. Now you may ask why I care so much? My cousin battled with this drug and was killed by it, my best friend had the same happen to his cousin. If you say Mexico is not at fault for that you are insane, Because 91% of that comes directly from Mexico.
Liberals and Democrats can’t seem to understand the difference between illegal immigration and legal immigration. We all want legal immigration and once we build that wall we can start focusing on bringing
more legal immigrants to boost our economy. I completely agree that illegal immigrants are causing crime and problems in our country. Especially when 3.5% of our population is undocumented immigrants but they commit 37% of homicides and the murders. Not only murders but 70% of drug trafficking crimes are from these illegal immigrants. They do commit crimes at disproportionate levels and this is not a bias it’s a fact.
Walls work. When you look at Israel before 2016 they had a huge immigration problem similar to the U.S. In 2016 when they built a wall only 11 illegal immigrants made it through. Later in 2017 they raised the wall a few feet higher and that year not a single person came illegally through that border. Another example, In Morocco they built a 1,700 mile system that ended an Algerian-sponsored terrorist group, ending the Western Sahara War. If a liberal read this they wouldn’t change their position on the wall or stronger border security. All they’re going to do is leave hateful comments which is completely legal to do and I hope some will because that’s their American freedom. Similar with the house Democrats, they are so against Trump they will do anything to neglect his powerful ideas. The point here was to give facts that are 100% plausible despite if you like CNN or Fox. My beliefs won’t change and if you forgot them here they are. Walls work, above is evidence that walls have worked in other countries. A southern border wall is necessary, above are facts that show how cruel illegal immigrants are. And we need to BUILD THAT WALL!
Ren • Feb 8, 2021 at 11:52 am
Let’s get to it I guess.
Reading this, along with some of the comments was painful, to say the least.
A bit of background, I am the daughter of a first-gen immigrant from new Zealand. (don’t lose your mind he was a resident) I was raised on foreign ideologies mixed with USA experience. My father moved here purely because of the agricultural jobs in Wyoming and Colorado. It became quickly apparent to my father after trump was elected, that this country was somewhere he no longer wanted to raise a family in. We never got the chance to move back to New Zealand because he passed shortly after. Though luckily, I am moving back once I graduate.
To be clear, I am in no way ungrateful for my time spent in the USA. My friends, my school. This country has rights many others don’t, and I’m grateful to experience. Even so, this country is… selfish. self-centered and unyielding in its older ways. There are countries that stand on par with the US, and there are countries that exceed it. (in my experience.)
To be honest, I personally see no weight to your stance, mostly because I see the opinion of someone who has had no first-person experience with living outside the US, or the (god awful) US immigration process. (took two years for my family to get through)
As someone who has had firsthand experience with both, as well as the life experience of being a minority, and a sympathizer and advocate for native peoples, I seem to be on the purely opposite side of this argument.
I would like to talk about a few of the comments you’ve made in regards to this article.
First off- your statement about how it’s been “hundreds of years” since travelers colonized and decimated native lands for personal gain. so what? the passage of time does not erase the intergenerational and ongoing trauma that the native and rightful citizens of this country face. I have no right to speak on behalf of tribes and communities that live on US land, however, if you look at any native written or posted resources, you will see that their stance on their living situation is more than unfair. Bonus: we are currently occupying Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute land if you live in Larimer county.
Next- whatever THIS was ” Conservatives don’t oppress people, and liberals and minorities are not oppressed.”
Yeesh. I don’t care what conservatives do all that much, who cares if your republican or whatever. HOWEVER, in what ways are minorities not oppressed?? The most ridiculous notion of your train of thought. Give me some examples. cmon. Why would minorities be enraged if there was nothing to be upset about? you think we just like throwing hissy fits because we don’t get our way? No. In every valid argument, you see, it is a plead for BASIC human rights and liberties. flat out equal treatment of the self. It was never about special treatment.
you are welcome to respond and chat with me, give me some examples of you being an immigrant, or perhaps a minority? a part of the lgbtq+ community? Any questions you want to be answered from me?
Looking forward to your response.
Whakawhetai! – Ren
Thade W George • Feb 6, 2019 at 9:28 am
@no
I wrote this for a english assignment:
“Estimates put the cost of the wall between 15 and 70 billion dollars. For this OP-ED, we will put the cost in between at 43 billion dollars. According to http://www.nationalpriorities.org, the yearly US budget is 3.8 trillion dollars. 43 billion dollars is 1.2% of the annual budget, which is absolutely nothing. Next, they say that walls dont work, and they can be simply dug under or hopped over. Some wall prototypes go up to 10 feet underground and 30 feet into the air. The walls are also flat, or large steel columns, making climbing nearly impossible with the little friction the wall provides. ”
So according to fairus.org, illegal immigrants cost us 116 billion dollars a year. Even if you cut that estimate in half the wall still would save us tons of money. Also, 1.2% is nothing. If we cannot afford to free up 1.2% then we have a problem. The wall doesn’t even need to be paid for in one year, even though pres cheeto probably wants this if he loses in 2020, because then the wall will never be finished.
no • Feb 3, 2019 at 4:29 pm
Thade, you do realize with the funding that our resident Cheeto has asked for won’t allow for the entire border to be covered? Five billion dollars is estimated to build…. 200 miles of wall (even Fox News, the president’s blind followers, has a very similar estimate). There is already 700 miles of wall/fence/barrier built (a overly generous estimation according to most sources but oh well). The border between the two countries is approximately 2000 miles long. I don’t know if you can do math, so here’s the hard work done for you….
2000-700= 1,300 miles currently unfenced/unwalled
1,300- 20= 1,100 miles that won’t be fenced
1,100/2000= 0.55
55% of the border won’t be fenced at all. While, yes, there are natural features that offer some deterrent to immigration (which was ALSO a feature of the Great Wall so don’t even go there) , that is still over half of the border that has no wall at all, even with Ugly Toupee’s wall that he tried to literally twist the government’s arm with the financial security of hundreds of thousands of federal workers to obtain the funding for. So, long story short, if you’re going to say that the failure of the Great Wall was in its length or lack thereof, you need to think about how that’s gonna play out here and realize that this is going to be just as ineffective as the wall that is often held up as a failure in cost (both monetary and in that of the laborers) and effectiveness.
Get some common sense, please and thank you.
https://www.wola.org/analysis/5-billion-wall-us-mexico-border-security/
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/heres-what-5-billion-in-border-wall-funding-would-buy
https://abcnews.go.com/US/700-miles-fencing-us-mexico-border-exist/story?id=45045054
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-mexico-border-wall-photos-maps-2018-5
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/politics/government-shutdown-faq/?utm_term=.81d550b1117b
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Great-Wall-of-China
ok dude • Feb 1, 2019 at 1:42 pm
@Payton Lee
How would we be “hurting less plants” if “we all ate plants”?
Also, plants don’t have brains or nerves so how would they have “feelings”?
I don’t want to be mean but I really think you should get help. It’s fine being Vegan, but it’s another thing to go around and attack others for their diet and what they eat. It’s also disturbing to see you berate other people that are fine with eating meat and that is just who they are, not everyone is gonna be vegan.
Thade W George • Feb 1, 2019 at 11:12 am
“great wall of china didn’t go so well”
This is a good point, but you have to remember/research what the wall was like. The great wall of china was only constructed in some places over thousands of years and did not span the entire length of the northern china border with the Mongolian Empire (modern day Russia and Mongolia). There were several hundred miles of wall gap (kinda like our wall or fence is now, but more extreme) where the invading army could ride through, invade, rape, pillage, then ride back to the mongol empire. Then, they would simply rinse, wash, and repeat. The wall would have worked, or at least slowed down the mongols if there were no gaps in it.
Nathan Novak • Feb 1, 2019 at 9:59 am
THIS IS JUST BIG FACTS!!! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!!! I’m so happy there are people in this world with knowledge. TRUMPPPPP #KEEPAMERICAGREAT #AMERICAISGREATNOW
anonymous • Feb 1, 2019 at 9:26 am
This article is great keep the wall coming baby. #TrumpFor2020
Jason • Feb 1, 2019 at 8:01 am
Great piece of writing and a great Trump supporter #TrumpTrumpsAll
anonymous • Jan 31, 2019 at 2:04 pm
Dude this article is the best. Keep writing and build that wall. #Trump #train #4 #life
anonymous • Jan 31, 2019 at 1:31 pm
great wall of china didn’t go so well
A Republican • Jan 30, 2019 at 2:42 pm
This doesn’t bring much more to the table than what modern media tells us. Most of us (I hope) understand the difference between illegal and legal immigration, and how it costs the government hundreds of thousands of dollars a day. I do believe a wall will help with the illegal immigration problem, but nonetheless, it will still find ways around it, such as by the sea and by the sky. This will bottleneck most of the drugs, but they will still find there way into the country, and without shutting down all borders, and sectioning us off from the world, there will always be ways to get behind America’s back.
I don’t think the wall is the worst solution, but it isn’t the greatest. What is a better solution? I’m not sure, however I’m sure many Liberal and Republican authors alike are trying to find it out.
Thade George • Jan 30, 2019 at 10:48 am
“Until next time, no one is illegal on stolen land! No borders! No walls! No USA at all!”
Okay, I hope this is a joke cause…….this is just a bit much. I am not going to argue of the land is stolen or not, because that happened hundred+ years ago. If you want to argue that the land is stolen then I can argue that taxes is stealing, government bad, ect.
Anyway, no borders means that cultures dont mix. Borders and countries force immigrants to mix their culture with the new one but they also have to learn about their new culture. No borders just means people clump up. Also, if America is one of the greatest countries on earth (it is) then you get rid of borders then the country that people in need are immigrating to aka the US will become no better then the poor crime stricken violent country the come from.
If you hate the USA so much I heard that the Middle East and Venezuela are great places. They are perfect examples of when countries have poor or little to no governments. 10million % inflation rates, terrorist and war zones are not typically fun, but at least there is no USA.
Walls work. If they didn’t, why do you have doors? Why do you have a fence? Why do stores lock the door when they close? Why is security a thing?If someone you didn’t know just walked into your house would you care, poor or not? I am just confused how a democratic socialist government that a lot of liberals believe in where they get free healthcare, universal income, and no american dream, would work where there is no borders.
The world is worse then you think. There are a lot of good people, but a lot of bad ones too. There is war, theft, murder, rape, and drugs. Its not about keeping the good and bad people out, its about keeping the bad people out and letting the good ones in the right way. Most countries have walls. During the Obama administration, democrats voted for 300+ miles of wall. Now that Trump is president, they care so much about winning that they are willing to shutdown their government to get a victory royal and get no wall. Trump will get his wall. His image is already so bad he probably doesn’t care how much worse it gets. Trump will get his wall, whether they vote for it or not, the only thing now is will the dems throw a fit and cause another shutdown or let Trump have his way?
Look Payton, we all know your a raging liberal. You hate conservatives, you are a vegan and you think meat eaters are murderers. You hate the US, you think borders shouldn’t exist and apparently walls don work even though we are surrounded by them. You think toxic masculinity is real, you think we have the same ideologies as Hitler, but its all not true. You want to take away guns, ect. (I might have stereotyped you, but its not hate speech dont throw me in jail lol). Conservatives dont oppress people, and liberals and minorities are not oppressed. Walls work, they keep us safe and it would cost far less then what illegal immigrants cost us each year. Borders help make what the US is today, great. The USA is the greatest country on earth, if you dont think so, you are welcome to leave. This isnt the soviet union or north korea, you are allowed to. Just before you move to a hellhole, please do your research, I dont want your head to be cut off by criminals or extremist, cause it happens a LOT. The world is bad Payton, I wish it was better, but we most survive with the world we were given.
Æþelberht Bongƿæterðrinc I • Jan 29, 2019 at 7:06 pm
The extensive issues with capitalization and mild grammatical errors aside, this opinion finds itself mired in poor warrants that not only lack a source, but, if one researches the information and finds the source, the information is either misinterpreted or taken out of context.
The first paragraph points out the miniscule amount of money requested by the Trump administration in its budget. While this is true, the point that follows is incorrect. To quote Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), during debate during the recent shutdown, “To my Democratic friends, money for a barrier is required to get this deal done.” Clearly, the central issue during the government shutdown as expressed by this quote is the funding of the border wall, and can reasonably be extended to include the idea of the construction of a border wall. The author also seems to imply that, not only was the bill the only one on the table, but that it failed exclusively because of the Democrats. This is untruthful. There were two bills available, one that gave funding for the ‘Wall’ and one that did not. Both passed the House of Representatives, which, as it has a Democratic majority, means that the Republican proposal required bipartisan support. Both budgets, however, died in the Senate, which is Republican-controlled. Granted, both required 60 votes to pass the Senate, meaning that both required bipartisan support to pass. But, in order to change this threshold as stated in Senate rules, only a simple majority is required, which means that the Republicans could’ve used this option to pass their budget. However, Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) seems aware of the possible situation of caveat emptor, or ‘buyer beware,’ for changing these rules opens the way for a possible Democratic majority to make use of this change, and as such refuses to do so.
The second paragraph states that walls are effective in all instances. While it is not elaborated on whether or not walls alone are effective, it can be reasonably be assumed that this is what was meant. This is false. Walls are only as good as their accompanying enforcement. Later in this paragraph, the author states statistics of the opioid crisis in the US. Not to discount the existence of the crisis, but the numbers stated by the author are wildly inaccurate. Upon consultation with statistics provided by the CDC, one finds that the number of heroin overdoses in 2016 is actually 15,469, nowhere near the 52,000 stated by the author. Additionally, the statement that Mexico is at fault is false, but in a roundabout manner. How the sentence is written implies that the Mexican government is at fault for the smuggling of heroin into the US. Unless the Mexican government is run by someone like Manuel Noriega, it is doubtful that a national government would directly sponsor the export of drug. A pedantic falsehood, but a falsehood nonetheless.
The third paragraph claims that immigrants conduct more criminal activity than the non-immigrant populace. The statistics stated cannot be found anywhere, although one can suspect them to be sourced from a highly reputable location such as InfoWars. These numbers are also poorly representative, if not the opposite of that determined in peer-reviewed studies.
At last comes the final paragraph, providing examples of when “Walls work.” Fraught with mischaracterization and inaccuracies, a prime example of how important it is to read the whole Wikipedia page instead of the introduction section. The first example presented is a wall in Israel. The dates given for the construction and supposed expansion are a little bit off, to say the least. The date when what presumably is the barrier that the author is referring to, the West Bank Barrier, is 2000, with construction of it occurring since then. The wall, by most characterizations, is not a wall to halt immigration, as stated by the author. The government of Israel itself finds it to be a security barrier, not to halt immigration, but to limit the ability of individuals to carry out terrorist attacks. While statistically it seems that the barrier is successful in reducing terrorist attacks, this is an incorrect assumption, as it ignores IDF operations in the West Bank against the source of the attacks the barrier was built to prevent. Not only is the actual utility of the barrier unclear, but the UN and the ICJ have found the wall to be in violation of international law. The second example of how “Walls work” is what is presumably the Moroccan Western Sahara Wall, since, again, the author fails to directly name the example. The term ‘wall’ is quite the misnomer here, since the majority of the barrier is no more than a roughly 2 meter tall berm of sand. Not exactly what stops a person from crossing now, is it? Granted, there are other layers to the barrier, such as bunkers along the barrier, and minefields, arguably creating one of the larger ongoing humanitarian disasters globally. Not only is this barrier a major humanitarian problem, but it violates the sovereignty of Mauritania in the process, crossing the Western Sahara-Mauritania border several times. The author, however, is correct in naming the purpose of the barrier, as it was built to exclude the Polisario Front from the populated regions of Western Sahara. But a major mischaracterization is made here of the Polisario Front. While having conducted some terrorism against Moroccan security forces, Polisario primarily seeks self-determination of Western Sahara through peaceful means, the right of which is legitimate according to the UN. Additionally, Polisario is seen by the UN to be the true representative of the Sahrawi people, the primary ethnic group suppressed by the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara. Furthermore, it is stated in this article that the barrier’s construction “ended” Polisario and the Western Sahara War. While the barrier did limit Polisario activities in Moroccan-occupied areas, the barrier in no way has eliminated Polisario altogether, and the barrier did not end the war directly, as a ceasefire agreement entered effect in 1991, 4 years after the completion of the barrier. The point made earlier in this response that barriers are only as strong as their enforcement is also true for the Western Sahara Wall, as Morocco was forced to deploy forces larger in number than the entirety of the Sahrawi population at the time to effectively defend the Moroccan occupation zone.
Cheers.
Æþelberht Bongƿæterðrinc I
Some source links:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-shutdown-senate/senate-seeks-solution-to-open-government-trump-insists-on-wall-idUSKCN1PI1CH
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-shutdown-senate-vote/u-s-senate-passes-bill-to-end-government-shutdown-idUSKCN1PJ2IN
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-shutdown/u-s-lawmakers-search-for-remedies-as-government-shutdown-rolls-on-idUSL1N1ZO283
https://mfa.gov.il/mfa/foreignpolicy/terrorism/palestinian/pages/saving%20lives-%20israel-s%20anti-terrorist%20fence%20-%20answ.aspx#1
https://web.archive.org/web/20071001150430/http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=664916
https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates
http://oxfordre.com/criminology/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264079-e-93
BenShapiroMEMELORD • Jan 29, 2019 at 5:55 pm
I would rate this SPICY article a 7/10, well written, but NEEDS sources. No one knows where your statistics came from as of now. Are the readers just supposed to take your word for these things? Otherwise. Good job. Keep writing.
Carson the terrible writer • Jan 29, 2019 at 1:47 pm
@Payton Lee, I have no clue who you are but i can give you a golden star if ya want good work kid!, god gave us animals to hunt and kill and god gave us people like you to laugh at. i’m glad you wrote all that for no reason and hope you feel more triggered now, yeye!
Payton Lee • Jan 29, 2019 at 10:40 am
@Carson Michael
lol dude seriously? you wrote this:
> If a liberal read this they wouldn’t change their position on the wall or stronger border security. All they’re going to do is leave hateful comments which is completely legal to do and I hope some will because that’s their American freedom.
and also this:
>They do commit crimes at disproportionate levels and this is not a bias it’s a fact.
and now that people are starting to prove you wrong you start whining in your own comment section how
“Y’all can roast me on anything you want, I’m just a average student, not a pro writer.”
You’re not just an amateur writer, you’re a *terrible* writer, and from what I can tell, a terrible reader. Sorry, you’re not getting “hate”, you’re just getting proved wrong. Learn to research next time man. I get that I’m “that dude” who submitted the controversial article with no sources but Im doing a bit of a redo with a bib and everything so you know… learn from your mistakes.
Until then, everyone remember that the Alternative Fact™ that plants have feelings is actually an argument in *favor* of veganism, because we feed the majority of our plants to animals! So if we all just ate plants, we’d hurt no animals, AND we’d hurt less plants! 🙂
Payton Lee • Jan 29, 2019 at 10:17 am
Oh boy. Alright lets do some fact checking.
> Especially when 3.5% of our population is undocumented immigrants but they commit 37% of homicides and the murders. Not only murders but 70% of drug trafficking crimes are from these illegal immigrants. They do commit crimes at disproportionate levels and this is not a bias it’s a fact.
The 37% (or as Trump put it, 63,000) homicide claim was just something he spewed out that was quickly retracted. In reality, illegal immigrants in Texas, for example, only commit 1.6% of total homicides– and make up over 10% of the population. Nationally, it is estimated that illegal immigrants commit about 3.2% of all homicides (1999-2009), which makes sense.
Then you claim that 70% of all illegal drug trafficking crimes are from “these illegal immigrants”. Holy heck my guy (I wish I could use profanity in my comment but I can’t, sorry), where are you getting your statistics from??
Consider this– and please, please consider this– *the government cannot stop citizens from acquiring demanded goods*. This is why gun control doesn’t work to the extent we wish it could, prohibition doesn’t work, and the war on drugs will never work. For every scapegoated illegal drug dealer, there is an American businessman in a jet looking for some cocaine to buy. “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” I’d say “illegal immigrants don’t bring drugs to America, Americans bring drugs to America”. If there wasn’t a demand for them, illegal drugs wouldn’t be trafficked here.
I really don’t have the time or energy right now to refute every one of you and Daddy Trump’s “powerful ideas”. I’m offended that this drivel is being compared to my article because mine was a bit of a joke, and this, unfortunately, is not. I’m sorry about your friend who died from a heroine overdose, but illegal immigrants are not causing the opioid epidemic, pharmaceutical companies and insurance agencies are. Look into it my friend.
Until next time, no one is illegal on stolen land! No borders! No walls! No USA at all!
Carson Michel • Jan 29, 2019 at 10:01 am
Y’all can roast me on anything you want, I’m just a average student, not a pro writer.
Taegen • Jan 29, 2019 at 8:42 am
Good to see some like minded people in this school 😀 #buildthatWALL
Seriously dude cite ur sources • Jan 29, 2019 at 8:14 am
1. “The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recently sent a letter to Congress where it argued that $5.7 billion would pay for approximately 234 miles of a new physical steel barrier along the border. That new estimate comes to about $24.4 million per mile. This new OMB estimate is 41 percent more costly than the approximately $17.3 million per mile construction costs that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimated just a few years ago, 2.7 times as expensive as Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan estimated, and 5 times as expensive as Trump’s lowest estimate. Even worse, the $24.4 million per mile estimate does not include the large cost overruns for government construction projects. Applying a conservative 50 percent cost overrun estimate to building the border fence brings the total price tag to approximately $36.6 million per mile. Building a steel fence along the remaining 1,637 miles of Mexican border not covered by pedestrian fencing would cost approximately $59.8 billion, excluding any maintenance costs.”
(https://www.cato.org/blog/cost-border-wall-keeps-climbing-its-becoming-less-wall)
2. Don’t blame the Democrats. “Both a Republican-backed proposal and a measure supported by Democrats did not get the 60 votes needed to pass. The Democratic plan to reopen the government without funding for President Donald Trump’s border wall — which Trump has explicitly threatened to veto — earned more votes in the GOP-held chamber.” (https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/24/senate-votes-on-government-shutdown-and-trump-border-wall-bill.html) Congress as a whole couldn’t agree on this stuff, they’re all responsible for the shutdown.
3. “Multiple criminological studies show that foreign–born individuals commit much lower levels of crime than do the native–born. In California, for example, where there is a large immigrant population, including of undocumented migrants, U.S.–born men were incarcerated at a rate 2.5 times higher than foreign–born men.” (https://www.brookings.edu/essay/the-wall-the-real-costs-of-a-barrier-between-the-united-states-and-mexico/) “February 2018 study by the Cato Institute using 2015 crime statistics from Texas found immigrants in the country illegally were 25 percent less likely to be convicted of homicide than native-born Americans. (Legal immigrants were 87 percent less likely.) According to the study, immigrants in the country illegally were also 11.5 percent less likely than native-born Americans to be convicted of sexual assault and 79 percent less likely to be convicted of larceny. The study found higher conviction rates among illegal immigrants for gambling, kidnapping, smuggling and vagrancy, but those offenses were rare and made up a tiny fraction of overall crime in Texas in 2015. A separate March 2018 study in the journal Criminology looked at whether violent crime increases as the number of immigrants living illegally in a community goes up. Researchers found it does not. If anything, the opposite is true: Violent crime appears to fall when more immigrants are living in a community illegally.” (https://www.npr.org/2018/06/22/622540331/fact-check-trump-illegal-immigration-and-crime)
4. “The number of Mexican unauthorized immigrants declined since 2007, but the total from other nations changed little. Mexicans made up half of all unauthorized immigrants in 2016, according to the Center’s estimate, compared with 57% in 2007. Their numbers (and share of the total) have been declining in recent years: There were 5.4 million Mexican unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. in 2016, down from 6.9 million in 2007.” (http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/11/28/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/) “Statistics show that many of the undocumented fit this profile. About 60 percent of the unauthorized population has been here for at least a decade…..In each year from 2007 to 2014, more people joined the ranks of the illegal by remaining in the United States after their temporary visitor permits expired than by creeping across the Mexican border, according to a report by researchers at the Center for Migration Studies.” (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/06/us/politics/undocumented-illegal-immigrants.html)
5. And bonus:
a. Why more border security= more immigration: “The unprecedented militarization of the Mexico-U.S. border not only failed in its attempt to reduce undocumented migration, but backfired by increasing the rate of undocumented population growth and turning what had been a circular flow of male workers going to three states into a settled population of families living in 50 states… unprecedented militarization of the Mexico-U.S. border not only failed in its attempt to reduce undocumented migration, but backfired by increasing the rate of undocumented population growth and turning what had been a circular flow of male workers going to three states into a settled population of families living in 50 states.” (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5049707/) (Seriously take APHG you learn that there)
b. You’re in the minority: “Overall, 44% of the American public supports building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico while 52% are opposed.” (https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/monmouthpoll_us_012819/)
6. This is not attacking you, just giving facts. I’ve cited my sources for yours, and anyone else’s, convenience.
Anonymous • Jan 29, 2019 at 8:13 am
This opinion is just like the opinion “If you eat meat, you are a coward”. It is just drawing attention to the author. This article isn’t saying anything that hasn’t already been said by news sources, but it will probably draw attention to the author for a while. The title is also a very obvious click bait, intended only to draw attention to the article and not to provide information about the article.