What are the reasons against building a US-Mexico border wall?

[Anonymous]

Because walls won’t work. We need to end American birthright snd just deport all illegal immigrants no question. No housing, no school for their children, etc. Basically give them no reason to come here unless they go through a legal process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because walls won’t work. We need to end American birthright snd just deport all illegal immigrants no question. No housing, no school for their children, etc. Basically give them no reason to come here unless they go through a legal process.

You love inflation. You’re advocating for high inflation.

[Anonymous]

We need to increase the number of immigrants we take in so that no migrant coming will have to worry about “being illegal”.

[Anonymous]

I'm intrigued by the notion of a bollard fence. What say you? #Spicey

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because walls won’t work. We need to end American birthright snd just deport all illegal immigrants no question. No housing, no school for their children, etc. Basically give them no reason to come here unless they go through a legal process.

But I'll bet you're a big Christian. MAGA trash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because walls won’t work. We need to end American birthright snd just deport all illegal immigrants no question. No housing, no school for their children, etc. Basically give them no reason to come here unless they go through a legal process.

But I'll bet you're a big Christian. MAGA trash.

They can go to school if they pay for it. NP

[Anonymous]

I’m an immigrant and I support a wall although I think the most effective things would be to remove birthright citizenship, make it a felony with mandatory jail time to hire someone who doesn’t have proper work authorization, and completely remove all government benefits unless you’re a citizen of this country (and yes, that means schools too).

All the people who say, “but we need those people to pick our fruit!” are completely unserious people because it’s very easy to allow more temporary work visas (for properly vetted people) to do this work rather than letting whoever just walk across our border and decide to stay here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m an immigrant and I support a wall although I think the most effective things would be to remove birthright citizenship, make it a felony with mandatory jail time to hire someone who doesn’t have proper work authorization, and completely remove all government benefits unless you’re a citizen of this country (and yes, that means schools too).

All the people who say, “but we need those people to pick our fruit!” are completely unserious people because it’s very easy to allow more temporary work visas (for properly vetted people) to do this work rather than letting whoever just walk across our border and decide to stay here.

those people are largely farmers, and farmers tend to be Rs.

And the penalty is too small.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/farmers-pushing-immigration-reform-counter-labor-shortages-escalating-rcna45741

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1. There is actually a shortage of immigrant labor in this country right now- we don’t have enough people to work as home health care aides, various jobs along the food supply chain, etc. There is no overpopulation or complicatedly large immigrant population.

2. Immigrants, both documented and undocumented, committed significantly less crime than native born Americans. If you want to see reduction or harmful crime, look to gun control, not immigration policy.

3. There is no ‘immigration line’ for these people. Read up on the different ways to get a visa- there is no path for many migrants. Yet, we depend on their labor.

4. There are ecological and cultural reasons not to have border walls. Again, easily googleable.

I feel sorry for you, OP. You hold so many mistaken beliefs and they are causing you undue worry. Please try to educate yourself before falling for far right tropes. The ignorance in your post is painful.

Cultural reasons? LMAO.

Based upon your amazing conclusions, we should also get rid of border patrol.

[Anonymous]

I'm an R and I am against it because the ROI just isnt there. It isnt an effective countermeasure to stop illegal crossings.

If a wall is politically necessary, it should be built on the southern border of Mexico. Its a much smaller border, and can be built cheaper.

[Anonymous]

A wall is a bad idea because it doesn’t do the thing people want it to do. If it *would* be impactful then it would (imo) still be a misguided policy decision but the reason he’s dismissed immediately by serious people of both parties is that it just wouldn’t work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m an immigrant and I support a wall although I think the most effective things would be to remove birthright citizenship, make it a felony with mandatory jail time to hire someone who doesn’t have proper work authorization, and completely remove all government benefits unless you’re a citizen of this country (and yes, that means schools too).

All the people who say, “but we need those people to pick our fruit!” are completely unserious people because it’s very easy to allow more temporary work visas (for properly vetted people) to do this work rather than letting whoever just walk across our border and decide to stay here.

The majority of people in the United States illegally are individuals who have overstayed legal visas. You are proposing expanding the number of legal visas. Won’t that inherently raise the number of people in the U.S. illegally?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm an R and I am against it because the ROI just isnt there. It isnt an effective countermeasure to stop illegal crossings.

If a wall is politically necessary, it should be built on the southern border of Mexico. Its a much smaller border, and can be built cheaper.

+1 by and large, most of the illegal immigrants now a days crossing the border are from Central/S. America. Build it in MX. That's a great idea. I wouldn't mind paying for that, actually.

And I agree on the ROI. It's a boondogle. Have you seen how much the wall that Trump built costs? It did not go out for bid, and the contract went under multiple cost revisions within the first few months. It was a yuuuuge waste of taxpayer $$, but I guess it MAGA feel good.

-former R

https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/27/border-wall-texas-cost-rising-trump/

On the same day in May 2019, the Army Corps of Engineers awarded a pair of contracts worth $788 million to replace 83 miles of fence along the southwest border.

The projects were slated to be completed in January 2020, the Corps said then. Four months into this year, however, the government increased the value of the contracts by more than $1 billion, without the benefit of competitive bidding designed to keep costs low to taxpayers.

Within a year of the initial award, the value of the two contracts had more than tripled, to over $3 billion, even though the length of the fence the companies were building had only grown by 62%, to 135 miles. The money is coming from military counter-narcotics funding.

Those contract spikes were dramatic, but not isolated. A ProPublica/Texas Tribune review of federal spending data shows more than 200 contract modifications, at times awarded within just weeks or months after the original contracts, have increased the cost of the border wall project by billions of dollars since late 2017. This is particularly true this year, in the run-up to next week’s election. The cost of supplemental agreements and change orders alone — at least $2.9 billion — represents about a quarter of all the money awarded and more than what Congress originally appropriated for wall construction in each of the last three years.

Yet an accounting of border wall contracts awarded during his presidency shows that his administration has failed to protect taxpayer interests or contain costs and stifled competition among would-be builders, experts say. In all, Trump’s wall costs about five times more per mile than fencing built under the Bush and Obama administrations.

I'm guessing a lot of that money went to firms that lobbied hard for him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an R and I am against it because the ROI just isnt there. It isnt an effective countermeasure to stop illegal crossings.

If a wall is politically necessary, it should be built on the southern border of Mexico. Its a much smaller border, and can be built cheaper.

+1 by and large, most of the illegal immigrants now a days crossing the border are from Central/S. America. Build it in MX. That's a great idea. I wouldn't mind paying for that, actually.

And I agree on the ROI. It's a boondogle. Have you seen how much the wall that Trump built costs? It did not go out for bid, and the contract went under multiple cost revisions within the first few months. It was a yuuuuge waste of taxpayer $$, but I guess it MAGA feel good.

-former R

https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10/27/border-wall-texas-cost-rising-trump/

On the same day in May 2019, the Army Corps of Engineers awarded a pair of contracts worth $788 million to replace 83 miles of fence along the southwest border.

The projects were slated to be completed in January 2020, the Corps said then. Four months into this year, however, the government increased the value of the contracts by more than $1 billion, without the benefit of competitive bidding designed to keep costs low to taxpayers.

Within a year of the initial award, the value of the two contracts had more than tripled, to over $3 billion, even though the length of the fence the companies were building had only grown by 62%, to 135 miles. The money is coming from military counter-narcotics funding.

Those contract spikes were dramatic, but not isolated. A ProPublica/Texas Tribune review of federal spending data shows more than 200 contract modifications, at times awarded within just weeks or months after the original contracts, have increased the cost of the border wall project by billions of dollars since late 2017. This is particularly true this year, in the run-up to next week’s election. The cost of supplemental agreements and change orders alone — at least $2.9 billion — represents about a quarter of all the money awarded and more than what Congress originally appropriated for wall construction in each of the last three years.

Yet an accounting of border wall contracts awarded during his presidency shows that his administration has failed to protect taxpayer interests or contain costs and stifled competition among would-be builders, experts say. In all, Trump’s wall costs about five times more per mile than fencing built under the Bush and Obama administrations.

I'm guessing a lot of that money went to firms that lobbied hard for him.

But of course
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/05/19/politics/border-wall-fisher-sand-gravel-trump/index.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m an immigrant and I support a wall although I think the most effective things would be to remove birthright citizenship, make it a felony with mandatory jail time to hire someone who doesn’t have proper work authorization, and completely remove all government benefits unless you’re a citizen of this country (and yes, that means schools too).

All the people who say, “but we need those people to pick our fruit!” are completely unserious people because it’s very easy to allow more temporary work visas (for properly vetted people) to do this work rather than letting whoever just walk across our border and decide to stay here.

The majority of people in the United States illegally are individuals who have overstayed legal visas. You are proposing expanding the number of legal visas. Won’t that inherently raise the number of people in the U.S. illegally?

Indeed.

I will repeat: the only way to curtail illegal immigration is to cut off the demand, then the supply will dry up.

Illegal immigrants know that someone will give them a job here. That is why they come. I don't blame poor people for wanting a job, and making a difficult, harsh, scary journey to get that low paying jobs. Many Americans have ancestors who did this as well.

I do blame the people who hire illegal immigrants. Obviously, they do this because the profit they make is much higher than the puny fees that they are assessed if they are caught having hired them. It's too tempting for them to not hire them.

So, make it not worth it. The penalty for hiring illegal immigrants should be a lot higher. Right now the penalty is anywhere from $100 to $3000 per.

Make it higher:

$50K/per - first time offense
$100k/per - second offense
$500k/per and prison sentence - third and subsequent offenses