Border Fence

C1: CostFor one to understand what a border fence really would mean, they need to analyze how long the actual fence would actually be. In the case between the U. S and Mexico, the length of the fence would need to extend to a length of 1,954 miles. (1) So, now let’s look at an older premature attempt to have a border fence. In 2006, president George W Bush signed the Secure the Fence Act, an act that would build a fence which was about 700 miles. (2) The total cost of this project was about 4 billion dollars. Now, if were to build an additional fence which would be 1,954 miles, the cost would be a staggering 28 billion dollars to completely seal the border. The cost of this is extremely expensive as you can see, and there are still way immigrants can get in, because the fence is not a continuous barrier and can be climbed over or dug under in some areas. A border fence is simply ineffective and expensive at what it’s intention is. (3)1: . https://en.wikipedia.org...2: . https://en.wikipedia.org...3: . http://www.bloomberg.com...C2: Harmful to the environment. Building a border fence would be very harmful to the environment. As witnessed with the Secure the Fence act, the border fence disrupted the habitat of jaguars, pygmy owls and other species in the area. Jaguars that would normally repopulate in the southwestern part of the U. S would be unable to do that if a border fence were put. This would likely disrupt the food cycle, as there will be a large amount of jaguars in Mexico. Not only does it harm animals, it also harms plants and other forms of life. A border fence would simply rid the saguaros and other plants, and many animals depend on these plants for food and water. According to the University of Texas, there even are smaller species that are at risk of extinction, because their isolated habitats are disrupted by the border fence. Such animals include the Northern aplomado falcon, Southwestern willow flycatcher, and Mexican wolf, could be a victim of the border fence. According to the article, “Destruction and/or alteration of this habitat will impose additional stress on wildlife in a region that has already been cleared of 95% of its native vegetation. Major wildlife impacts from border wall construction include at least the following: increased road mortality along access and patrol roads, loss of habitat cover and connectivity, altered wildlife behavior and range due to high intensity lightning/construction/operational noise, and the interruption of mating activities necessary to sustain wildlife populations over time”Simply put, the border fence is harming the environment, and these changes will dramatically change the way wildlife in the area are living. As the government, it as a obligation of protecting wild-life, not destroying it. The border fence is also harmful to indigenous groups who depend of the natural environment near the border for their survival, and cultural values. Those animals I mentioned earlier are also part of their heritage, and building a border fence will impact their lives both mentally and physically. (4) (5)4:. https://law.utexas.edu...5: . http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org...C3: Mexican immigrants are not a bad thing for AmericaEssentially a Border Fence would stop illegal immigrant, but why stop them, when they are a net positive in our economy? Despite rhetoric from the right-wingers that immigrants are here to steal American jobs, it really is not the case. Immigrants who come from Mexico, often work low paying hard labor jobs that regular American would generally avoid doing. That is a net-positive to the country and the economy. Even though many of those immigrant might not have a high school education, they are contributing by working long hours. You may the ask, “well what about the low skilled native born Americans”? Immigrants in fact actually helped actually drove up wages for native-born Americans without high school diplomas. These increases ranged from .6% to 1.7%. Another study also showed that when there are more immigrants, the high school graduation rates also rise. The way this works, is that native born are more likely to work harder at school, of fears of competing with low-skilled immigrants. (6)Illegal immigrants help the economy is various sectors such as Agriculture. According to the U. S Department of Agriculture, “about half of the hired workers employed in U. S. crop agriculture were unauthorized, with the overwhelming majority of these workers coming from Mexico. ” The USDA has also warned that, “any potential immigration reform could have significant impacts on the U. S. fruit and vegetable industry. ” From the perspective of National Milk Producers Federation in 2009, retail milk prices would increase by 61 percent if its immigrant labor force were to be eliminated. ” So, if we began to cut down on our illegal immigration, several industries would begin to lose their labor force, and prices for consumer product will begin to increase. Out of 2.5 million farmers in the U. S, 53% of them are actually illegal immigrants. A border fence would simply decrease the number of farmers we have, and would also make consumer prices rise up, because we would no longer have the immigrants who work long hours and receive low wages. Just in the state of Texas, if the undocumented immigrant population did not exist, Texas’ work force would decrease by 6.3 percent” and Texas’ gross state product would decrease by 2.1 percent. (7)6:. http://www.latinpost.com...7: . http://www.ers.usda.gov...Despite attempts by Neo-Cons who think Mexicans are stealing jobs, Mexicans are a huge positive to the U. S, just because of their impact on the economy. Infact, only 16.7% of economists actually think the current rate of immigrant is high. So, what do I propose? I’m not saying we need to just let illegals in, but we need to make legal immigration a lot easier for people, especially since they are helping our economy grow. As the land of immigrants, we need to make the land itself feel more welcome as much as we can. Diversity is a major plus for America, as it always has been. C4: Simply ineffective. As I mentioned before. The border fence is simply ineffective at what it is trying to do. People will eventually dig under it or cut through it. All it really will do is slow down the rate of immigration, but not actually prevent it. Mexico has also enacted a Southern Border Plan, which will deploy 5,000 federal police to intercept migrants at highway points. Just from that So far this year, the number of detained migrants registered as "unaccompanied children" is down by 51 percent, about the same as the number of "family units" caught crossing illegally. So, illegal immigration is already declining, and an expensive option such as the border fence is useless.7: . https://www.fidh.org...So, a Border fence is too expensive, environmentally harmful, a drain on the economy, and is ineffective. As somebody who will be paying taxes in the future, I do not want my tax money spent on a useless and pathetic attempt to stop illegal immigration. I await my opponents arguments.