Resolved: Donald Trump's border wall policy is a bad idea

BOP sharedRebuttals should be saved for round 2Don't be a troll Contention 1: Ruined Relations The US-Mexican wall that is proposed by Donald Trump will most certainly ruin relations between Mexico and the US. This is shown if we look at the recent comments made by the Treasury secretary of Mexico, where, according to the Guardian on the third of March in 2016, he says “I say it emphatically and categorically: Mexico, under no circumstance, is going to pay for the wall that Mr. Trump is proposing,” Of course, Trump has a plan in case the Mexican government refuses to comply with paying for the wall. Trump plans to punish Mexico economically according to Slate in 2015, by, among other things, “...increase fees at ports of entry to the United States from Mexico [Tariffs and foreign aid cuts are also options]. We will not be taken advantage of anymore.” Keep this in mind, if the Mexican government will not pay for the wall and the economic sanctions cripple Mexico economically, then the government would then be forced to dip into taxes and funds that actually help the Mexican people to pay for the wall. This would then harm the Mexican people, not the government, as Mexico would simply become not as economically stable, thus not being able to support the people of Mexico.While I can concede that Mr. Trump has good intentions to stop illegal immigration, he is doing this entirely in the wrong way if we are ruining our relation with our third largest trading partner. In fact, according to Foreign Policy in 2015, we currently trade over half of a trillion dollars annually with Mexico. While my opponent may point out the trade deficit between the two countries, we still see that Mexico is a nation that does supply us with plenty of goods for our everyday consumers. Also, we still mutually prosper with Mexico due to our trade relations as well, and without American exports to Mexico, we will see more impoverished people in the country of Mexico. We see a net benefit for both the United States and Mexico if we continue to trade and positive relations with Mexico, so we must affirm the resolution. Contention 2: Border Wall Impossible To Maintain To maintain the border wall, we would need an organization to do so. The Department of Homeland Security would be the most likely option as it already protects the border. However, if we were to look toward the Department of Homeland Security, we see rampant corruption and untrustworthy actions. If we turn toward PR Watch, we see that given a 10 billion dollar budget, the Department of Homeland Security has not shown to deter illegal immigration or drug trafficking. Also, we can look toward a report from a former senator named Tom Coburn who releases reports on corruption and money being misspent. According to the report by Senator Coburn, “DHS has not succeeded in its efforts to secure U.S. port facilities, infrastructure, and incoming cargo from potential terrorist attacks, despite spending upward of $5 billion on these initiatives since 2002.” Not only this, but rampant corruption spreads throughout the Department, with over 600 open cases of criminal activity of officers as of December 2012, again, from Coburn’s report. If the Department of Homeland Security can’t do its normal job, how can we trust that they have the competence to take on this mission as well? Especially considering the fact that there have been no alternatives offered to maintain the wall as well. Considering that Trump has not specified how we can maintain the border, or how effective we can determine the wall will be, we can only assume that he has no answer, so affirm the resolution. Contention 3: Will Not Stop Drug Trafficking Drug Cartels are now very creative in ways to get drugs over the border. According to Rear Admiral Christopher Tomney, "[Now] well over 95% of the drugs are moving on the water via container ships, non-commercial vessels, pleasure boats, sailboats, fishing boats. They also have fast boats which try to outrun our law enforcement assets” What we are looking at is not a border problem. Considering that even with a border, drugs are still coming over the wall already built, we also need to address the drug problem that Trump brings up in a different way. After all, according to the DEA, “These Mexican poly-drug organizations traffic heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana throughout the United States, using established transportation routes and distribution networks,” Also, many times drug cartels will utilize underground tunnels and drones to get under and over the border. So, what will the border wall do? Nothing. The drug problem will continue because we are not addressing the problem. The best way to attack the problem is to either legalize drugs and regulate them by the FDA or to directly attack the drug routes to stop the spread of drugs to the developed world. Either would be great alternatives to solve the problem at hand while not harming relations, or putting the program into an incompetent actor’s hand. So, if one of the main reasons to strengthen border security is, in fact, worthless since it will not work, then there is no reason to not affirm today’s resolution. Sources: http://www.theguardian.com... http://www.slate.com... http://www.prwatch.org... http://www.nationalreview.com... http://www.bbc.com...