The wall remains foundation of Trump’s immigration plans
Donald Trump was said to have been considering ways to recast his hard-line positions on immigration without offending his base. Given the centrality of the issue to his presidential campaign, this would have been the political equivalent of a reverse pike four-and-a-half somersault high dive.
Trump seemingly began the maneuver Wednesday with a presidential-like visit to Mexico City, where he met with President Enrique Peña Nieto. But anyone thinking Trump would complete the move — however inartfully — with a shift to the center on immigration would have been sorely disappointed.
His speech delivered later in the day in Phoenix was nothing short of a full-throated rant designed to whip up his base with angry — and largely inaccurate — descriptions of current policies and trends.
No. 1 among his 10-step immigration plan was a renewal of his call to build a “great wall along the southern border,” to be staffed with an additional 5,000 border agents.
A wall along the southern border, supposedly to be paid for by Mexico, has long been a Trump staple. In the world of political promises, such a wall has undeniable emotional potency as a symbol of America’s resolve to secure its border.
But in the world of bricks, mortar and budgets, Trump’s wall along the 1,989-mile border with Mexico would be hugely costly (estimates range anywhere from $5 billion to $25 billion) and only marginally effective.
Start with the simple fact that roughly 40% of undocumented immigrants in the United States are people who overstay their visas, not people who sneak into the country. A wall wouldn’t affect them.
Add to this the fact that 670 miles of wall and fencing has already been erected in recent years, with other stretches of the border covered by “virtual walls” of electronic monitors and patrols. Other parts of the border, moreover, have significant natural barriers, such as the Sonoran Desert.
You wouldn’t know it from listening to Trump, but as a result of these existing barriers, and falling birth rates in Latin America, illegal immigration has been declining over the past decade.
That doesn’t exactly call out for one of the largest public works projects the United States has ever undertaken, one that would involve getting massive amounts of concrete and steel to remote and roadless places.
There are much better uses for infrastructure money — and much better ways to curb the flow of undocumented workers.
Principal among them is E-Verify, the system the federal government developed to track the status of job applicants. EVerify remains voluntary in much of the country, and sanctions against companies that repeatedly hire undocumented workers are weak.
The government doesn’t press harder largely because business groups push back. They need undocumented workers to fill jobs that are difficult or impossible to fill with Americans.
Trump’s wall is best viewed as a stage prop for an immigration policy that’s likely to end in an ugly belly flop.