President Donald Trump announced on April 3, 2018 that he'll deploy troops to the U.S.-Mexico border pending completion of a border wall and implementation of stricter security measures. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/02/world/americas/caravans-migrants-mexico-trump.html
Trump’s border wall is stupid and dangerous.
Yes, the U.S. can build a wall or fencing on the U.S. side of the border, except for that portion of the border that is on the Tohono O’odhom reservation in Arizona. But the wall will be an expensive failure.
Donald Trump proposes to build a wall that will cost some $25 billion.
Rather than building a wall that will not work, we could build 375 schools in the U.S., or 93 average size hospitals. For every 10 miles of wall built, we could have 30 schools. For every 50 miles, we could have 4-5 hospitals.
http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2017/01/26/mexico-trump-nafta
The Border Community is 2,000 miles long, expanding from California to the Gulf of Mexico. It includes uninhabited desert, small and large cities, and el Rio Grande. The area needs schools and hospitals, not walls.
As I explained in 2017, the Trump administration is being reckless and poorly informed in matters of foreign policy and immigration issues. To resist we need to know several things about Mexico and migration. Building Trump’s wall and trying to make Mexico pay for the wall built on U.S. land was a belligerent act championed in the Trump campaign. This poorly informed effort ignores many of the realities of the U.S.-Mexico relationship. Mexico provides the primary security against migration to the U.S. on our southern border. Mexican police and military restrict migration and turn thousands of would-be migrants from Central America back each year.
These poorly informed decisions are the kind we get since when we have President who watches Fox News rather than to rely upon persons who know the region and the issues.
The Mexican army and police also provide the primary obstacle to migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala from reaching the U.S. border. The U.S. pays the Mexican forces to do this enforcement. Given Trump’s provocative statements and acts, they could simply stop serving as a border security force for the U.S. The end of bi-national police cooperation would massively increase immigration and severely reduce efforts to restrict drug cartels from moving drugs into the U.S. Update
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/world/americas/mexico-trump-caravan.html
The Mexican political system and the police are corrupt, but the situation could get much worse. The Mexican legislature is already considering several bills to prevent Mexico from cooperating with the Trump surge in deportations. Readers should know that the Mexican presidency is up for election in 2018, and the current dominant party (PRI) is in disgrace, in part because it is seen as subservient to the Trump administration. Nationalism and resisting Yankee interference is a potent political force in Mexico and a left populist – Manuel Lopez Obrador – is currently far ahead in the polls.
Trump’s demand to build the wall and to impose tariffs is producing a reaction in Mexico. The U.S. not only imports from Mexico, U.S. corporations also exported to Mexico $267 billion dollars worth of goods in 2015. Mexico is the U.S.’s second largest export market. A tariff on the U.S. side will likely produce a tariff on the Mexican side that could cost some 1 million jobs in the U.S.
Arturo Rodriguez, President of the United Farmworkers union (UFW) asks, “Since some 50 % of agricultural labor in California, Florida and Texas is undocumented, when they arrest all of these workers, who is going to feed the nation?” The answer to his question is, if the border is closed and mass arrests make workers not available, most vegetable production will move to Mexico and to other countries. Is that progress?
http://www.dsausa.org/we_can_resist_trump_s_immigration_orders
Duane Campbell
Co Chair. Immigrants Rights Committee. Democratic Socialists of America.