Having a physical barrier is necessary to enforcing a sovereign nation’s territory. Investments in drones etc., agents, technology are important too. But without a physical barrier to slow the traffic of illegals, it would be quite pointless. What’s the point of taking high resolution photos as illegals cross? The whole point is prevention, not monitoring illegal crossings in progress. The border is just to large to manage using a passive approach.

The common objections are that:

1. It’s racist
2. It’s costly
3. It won’t have an impact
4. There’s better uses of tax payer money

#1 is an idiotic claim, Calling someone racist because they believe in border security doesn’t logically follow.not going to debate it further.

#2, yes it’s coatly but consider benefits (see 3 and 4 below)

#4 at least has some merits to argue with, but given the size of US Fed govt and the $ spent in other areas I would say at worst, it represents a significant investment but in something that is important to national security/overall immigration policy. At best it will save tax payers and our economy billions over the years in relief from strain on public resources; Costs for drug enforcement/cost of illegal drugs on economic productivity, transfer payments to impoverished, healthcare, inundation of public school systems, stain on judiciary/local police/penal system ( yes many commit serious crimes, their first being illegal immigration).

#3 Absolutely has an impact. There are so many examples all over the world of its effectiveness Israel being one of them. Would love to see a longitudinal study on of before/afters to see impact on crime/GDP,employment etc. if there’s an economist out there, please do it.

Finally, with all of that said. The wall is just one piece albeit a very large one of overall immigration policy. I’m 100% for legal Mexican immigration. US has a labor shortage and needs many of them. Current system is way too slow and there can be more done to expedite process/eliminate inefficiencies. In addition I think temp VISAs for seasonal workers (agriculture) need to be prioritized. If many are coming here just for economic reasons but don’t particularly want to be “American”, we should enable law abiding, skilled, responsible Mexicans to come here on temp visas for seasonal/temp employment.

Bottom line it needs to be controlled, what we have now is a mess and falls squarely on shoulders of congress who instead of developing better long term policy have chosen to make it a political issue to campaign on.

I had been saying from the beginning that he should have started by offering turrets and land mines and scaled back to the wall. It would have been built by now and would have proved his “deal making” abilities... unfortunatelbhe started at wall and had nowhere to back up to. Sad.

In all seriousness the people who profit off the current situation are human traffickers and cartels so anything that makes their jobs harder is both good for america and for the people of mexico. I would recommend The Wall Rant on Raz0rfist’s youtube channel which I sent to several people prior to the election. He breaks down the necessity pretty well.

As for the way it’s getting done... the recent controversy over using emergency powers I can see both sides of the argument but I kinda feel we are in an emergency situation.. not necessarily at the border currently but in general. Our government has a few primary functions and among them are securing our rights and our borders, if they are no longer interested in doing either (which seems to be the case looking over the past few decades) than THAT is the emergency.