Trump’s crumbling case for a border wall

government shutdown, owned and operated by the President of the United States, has revealed a presidency on the verge of falling off a wall.

The President’s one-way wall conversation has little grounding in reality. It started as a rhetorical game early in his presidential campaign to keep him on message with chants of “Build that wall!” It has led to a record long shutdown of the federal government.

Trump’s threatened use of “emergency powers” to build the wall – bypassing Congressional budgetary measures – reminds us of history during a different Republican presidency.

Ronald Reagan was desperate to find funding for his beloved, thuggish “contras” in Nicaragua, despite congressional disapproval. The President’s men put together a lurid, illegal operation to support the contras out of (literally) the basement of the White House, via arms sales to Iran.

It became known as the “Iran-contra” scandal and it nearly brought down a president who claimed to have no knowledge of the operation. The actor charmed the nation, and America forgave him.

Trump and friends, deficient in comparable charm, have resorted to scare tactics. They have claimed a border “crisis” to frighten the American people when most people realize there is no crisis at the border.

The number of people hoping to cross into the U.S. legally or otherwise is at an all-time low. Claiming that illegal drugs enter through smugglers at unauthorized entry points is wrong when experts agree most drugs are smuggled through legal entry points.

The wall cannot prevent the arrival of people who decide to over-stay a tourist visa. More than 50 percent of all “undocumented” folk in this nation arrive here legally. Many of these over-stayers are from Europe, Africa and Asia.

Terrorists? They’re not being apprehended at the southern border. A relatively small number (3,755) have been blocked from entry into the United States, but they’ve attempted to enter through our airports.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security refuses to provide a clear statistical breakdown of these numbers, which leaves the significant likelihood that individuals are includthe

Michael Larosa and Bryce Ashby Columnists USA TODAY NETWORK

ed simply because they are coming from government labeled “high risk” countries like Somalia, Afghanistan, and Iran. A government that simply invents data to push a political agenda is not a good government.

Much of the media and many people in the president’s own party have regurgitated these numbers without questioning their veracity.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham called on the president to use his emergency powers. Does Graham really believe poor people from three failing Central American nations represent a threat to the United States? The vast majority of Americans would rather help these people than declare a “national emergency” against them.

This is the clearest of one-sided, manufactured crises in recent memory. Until last week, the Republicans controlled Congress and the presidency. Our president announced that he’d be “proud” to shut down the government to force Congress to pay for his wall, but now he’s fallen off the wall.

As responsible citizens, the only question we need to ask is: Can we put the nation back together again?

Michael J. Larosa is an associate professor of history at Rhodes College. Bryce W. Ashby is a an attorney with Donati Law and board chair of Latino Memphis, Inc.