USA TODAY International Edition
Our view: Trump's wall won't fix the problems at the border
In 2017, the last year for which the FBI has compiled data, there were 17,284 instances of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter in the USA. These are serious crimes, and this is a serious matter. But few political leaders these days talk about a violent crime “crisis” because the problem is far less acute than it was in the 1990s, and because no one has any easy solutions.
Much the same is — or should be — true about illegal immigration. It is a serious matter. The United States cannot be seen as providing a pass to those who come here unlawfully. And the nation is dealing with an upsurge in migrants from Central America.
This is a significant problem, particularly in the southern border states and for the migrant families. But it is not a major national crisis like gun violence, the opioid epidemic or climate change. Illegal immigration is actually down sharply from its highs of the past two decades. The United States, moreover, has dealt with far larger influxes of refugees — after the fall of Saigon in 1975, for instance, or during the Ethiopian famine of the 1980s.
Even so, President Donald Trump wants the public to believe there’s an immigration crisis. Today he will travel to the Texas border to make the case for one. And on Tuesday he delivered a prime-time speech that repeated his familiar litany of exaggerations, falsehoods and guilt-by-associations. In the latter part of the 10-minute address, he focused on violent crimes committed by undocumented immigrants — at one point asking, “How much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job?” — without acknowledging that these people actually commit crimes at a lower rate than the native-born population.
Trump thinks a crisis will gain him leverage in a mundane but damaging dispute he is in with congressional Democrats that has shut down parts of the government — including, crazily enough, some homeland security functions — since Dec. 22.
He wants $5.7 billion for his border wall (which he now calls a physical barrier made of steel), the one Mexico was supposed to pay for. In their awkward response to the president’s address, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer also broke no new ground, and talks to reopen the government broke down Wednesday at the White House.
In the speech, Trump stopped short of an even more overwrought response: declaring a national emergency in a bid to repurpose military spending to his wall. But he said Wednesday the option remains on the table, even though it would tie the wall up in lengthy legal challenges and is opposed by hawkish lawmakers.
By invoking the language of crisis, Trump is hoping to shift the largely negative public opinion about his wall. Perhaps the public understands that the wall is a costly, impractical solution to the illegal immigration problem, half of which consists of people who enter the United States legally and overstay their visas. And what about drugs? They are an enormous scourge, but virtually all the Mexican heroin comes through legal points of entry.
If there is a truly frightening crisis, it comes in form of an erratic, fearmongering president making as much noise as he can while pushing hard on all of democracy’s pressure points.
On immigration, certain laws need to be revisited. Additional resources, particularly for immigration courts, are needed. New or improved physical barriers are appropriate in certain sectors, along with better technology and more personnel. An obvious deal — border security money in return for protection of the “Dreamers” brought here illegally as minors — is there for the making.
But neither party appears in a hurry to bargain, and the nation doesn’t need to go into crisis mode just because Trump thinks there is some political advantage to it.