In 1914, Robert Frost published his famous poem, “Mending Wall.” Towards the end of the poem, he writes:
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
The metaphor of a wall, and the reality of building one, is as old as civilization itself. So the debate over building The Wall on the Mexican border is simply another addition to the chronicle of human nature. And this Wall, if built, will be sowed in the dirt of fear, disillusionment, and anger.
American political rhetoric advocating for The Wall is founded on stopping illegal immigration. The focus on intense border security, however, goes back more than 40 years to Nixon’s War on Drugs. There is no doubt that both have been persistent political perforations: the US has spent approximately $1 trillion on the War on Drugs and little to no progress has been made. It’s been the decriminalization and legalization of marijuana in many US states, according to Ron Paul, that has cut marijuana smuggling from Mexico in half—a reasonable deduction.
But is it not the insatiable American appetite for drugs—marijuana and cocaine, especially—that stimulates the smuggling? Is it not the access to welfare programs and employment that incites illegal immigration? There are two sides of the wall.
Tens of thousands of guns, legally purchased in the United States, are smuggled into Mexico, fueling cartel violence, including gun violence on the border.
Would it, then, be appropriate for Mexico to have a War on Guns?
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According to Bill Chappell of NPR, who cities the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), “from 2009 to 2014, more than 73,000 guns that were seized in Mexico were traced to the U.S. according to a new update on the effort to fight weapons trafficking along the U.S.-Mexico border.” The GAO Report also states the following: “According to Mexican government officials, high caliber rifles are the preferred weapon used by drug trafficking organizations. According to ATF data, most were purchased legally in gun shops and at gun shows in the United States, and then trafficked illegally to Mexico.”
Would it, then, be appropriate for Mexico to have a War on Guns?
The United States and Mexico share a border of approximately 2000-miles. There are 653-miles of existing wall. The cost of building the remaining length is unclear. The Washington Post cites the cost at upwards at $20 billion. GlobalSecurity.org estimates that, for “a standard 10-foot prison chain link fence topped by razor wire,” the cost could be as low as $851 million. Fortune reports that “last July, research group Bernstein estimated a different figure [than the President’s $5 billion to $10 billion estimate]…Minus labor and land acquisition costs, analysts there found that the materials needed to build a 40-foot-tall, 7-foot-deep, 10-inch-thick, and 1,000-mile-long wall between the U.S. and Mexico would cost $15 billion.” Specifications of The Wall, which the President signed an executive order to build, have yet to be released. The focus has been on cost and length and size; yet little attention is paid to the profundity of what has led to The Wall in the first place.
There will always be a gap in the wall. Maybe it’s time to figure out how to mend it.
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Maybe the motivation behind The Wall may is justified. But Frost reminds us that it’s important to remember to “whom I was like to give offense.” President Trump’s approach to The Wall has led Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to state the following: “There have been episodes in human history, unfortunately, where these expressions of this strident rhetoric have only led to very ominous situations in the history of humanity.”
Will a wall stop illegal immigration? Will a wall stop those wanting to do the United States harm? Will a wall stop drug smuggling? Will a wall stop the flow of guns into Mexico?
Frost ends “Mending Wall” with the image of the neighbor attempting to fix a gap in the wall between their properties:
I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand,
like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’
There will always be a gap in the wall. Maybe it’s time to figure out how to mend it.
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Photo: Getty Images
In a normal situation I would agree that we should find alternatives to building the wall” but things have progressed beyond anything that could be considered amicable between the US and Mexico First of all the Mexican culture sees their government as us and them whereas we are the government. The dichotomy the Mexicans live in here in the US is not acceptable to the majority of us here in “Del Norte”. (search Mexico vs Spain and Mexico vs France) Reconquesta is real and is threatening the stability of our western states and ultimately our Union. The Mexican children are… Read more »
Do locks on doors and windows stop burglaries? Would you then advocate removing them? Why would you worry about offending someone who doesn’t respect your borders or boundaries?