The case for a border wall is crumbling

Perhaps nothing candidate Donald Trump said had more resonance than his pledge to build a wall along the entire U.S.Mexico border. He promised such a wall — paid for by Mexico — in his announcement speech in 2015. President Trump returned to the topic Monday, demanding that Democrats fund the wall in return for legislation that would save from deportation roughly 800,000 immigrants brought here as children.

But a recent investigative report by the USA TODAY Network shows how difficult — and potentially pointless — it would be to fulfil that promise. The report underscores the fact that the cost of building the wall would be high while its effects on illegal immigration would be minimal.

At present, virtually all of the border between Mexico and California, Arizona and New Mexico has some kind of barrier, though some will only stop vehicles. In contrast, little of the Texas border has fencing. Apart from a few metropolitan areas such as El Paso, Del Rio, Laredo and the lower Rio Grande Valley, the Texas-Mexico border is a remote and hostile place. Its rugged terrain, punishing heat and absence of roads are a more effective barrier than anything man-made.

And with the economy in its eighth year of recovery and showing signs of picking up strength, actual labour shortages are beginning to appear. The wall idea gets weaker by the day.