Donald Trump believes the United States has a problem, and that problem is illegal immigration. Trump has proposed that we fix this problem by erecting a wall on the border between Mexico and the United States.
First, however, we will deport all the illegal immigrants that are currently living in the United States.
I would like to address several logistical problems with this plan.
The first problem arises when we think about how to identify every single illegal immigrant currently living in the United States.
We are talking about a nationwide manhunt with the ultimate goal of rounding up millions of people and shipping them out of the country.
The manpower needed for an operation of this size would be nothing short of a full-scale military operation. Where would we take these people once they have been rounded up?
I would simply like to point out that a scenario in which millions of people are being moved is not as easy as moving them from point A to point B.
When you really start to think about the physical requirements of an operation like this one, it begins to sound not only daunting from a financial standpoint, but also legitimately scary — historically, the forced removal of people from their homes is always associated with ethnic and racial violence.
The next problem with deporting these people arises when you consider how we will make them leave. Once again, I think this will be much more difficult than Mr. Trump would have us believe.
These immigrants, although illegal, have made homes and families here; it is a mistake to believe that these members of our community should be expected to uproot themselves — or let themselves be uprooted — for the sake of an impossible plan.
Another problematic aspect of this plan involves a massive public works project that Trump referred to jokingly as the “Great Wall of Trump.”
Who will honestly pay for the wall?
Trump suggests that Mexico will foot the bill for this project. Why would Mexico pay for this wall — and more than that, why should it?
I feel that sending Mexico a bill might illicit a response about where America could stick it, instead.
Assuming that Mexico will not willingly pay for this wall, how would we make Mexico pay for it?
I feel like the most likely solution is that the Mexican people would pay for the building of this wall, specifically the Mexican people still in the United States, the Mexican people that our government will have just imprisoned.
The cost of this wall will either be one that the American people add to our mounting debt or one that the Mexican people pay with their lives.
The Great Wall of Trump will just simply not stop people from crossing our border.
Most of the people crossing the border are looking for work or escaping violence; they are the ones doing hard labor and giving everything to provide for their families.
Mr. Trump would have us believe that these are bad people.
I do not believe they are bad, but simply a product of environment in which they are taken advantage of by their own people and then criminalized by ours. It is our responsibility to change this environment in which the poorest and most desperate are the most penalized.
The wall that Donald Trump proposes will not solve any of the problems for which it would be built.
The wall would only serve as a trophy for a megalomaniac and as a distraction, one more way for American politicians to externalize our problems.
The real problem is not that we have foreign workers entering our country; the problem is that we as a culture have become lazy and arrogant. We as Americans are unwilling to do the jobs that these immigrants are doing.
The problem is an entitled American attitude.
The wall would, however, make a statement: that there is reason to fear the outside world, that seemingly less fortunate people are to be kept away at all costs and that a country which owes so much of its economic growth to immigrants has changed so radically that it would attempt to isolate itself.
The statement to the world is that we are weak, we are afraid and once again we think ourselves separate and superior.
The solution to the problems we are hoping to fix will not be attained with force, but through hard work and intelligence.
America must stop considering itself separate from the actions of the rest of the world.
Immigrants are not the degradation of the American culture they are its lifeblood, the very essence of what this country is about. We cannot afford to believe that we are unaffected by the events of the world and we cannot afford to believe that our actions do not affect the world, especially when it comes to Mexico, a country that has been so affected by American foreign policy. America must stop self-serving policing actions that alienate other countries and cultures.
Americans must be willing to work harder and for less money. Americans – especially those who look to Donald Trump for leadership – need to stop looking at external causes for our problems and take a good look within.
Donald Trump’s foreign policy would create an environment in which American power drowns social solutions and only bigger problems can reach the surface.
Ian Cleary is a senior art major from Flowood.
