The Economic Impact of a Wall

SOURCE: Industry Week

The economic principle I’m exploring is that all choices have an opportunity cost.

My research question to help me study the economic principle is “How would building the wall affect the economy?”

The article published in Thinking Progress titled “Why Citizenship Is Better For America Than Legal Status” demonstrates this economic principle by showing how the legalization of immigrants causes a decrease in the federal budget, an increase in revenue, and an addition of jobs. 

To begin with, this article argues that immigrants should become citizens through legal processes. The wall being built would cause immigrants to be pushed to becoming citizens legally. I personally do not think that the wall should be built to keep immigrants out, but because it would help the United States in many different ways when more of the Mexican immigrants legally come here.

One way that it would help the United States is by causing a decrease in the federal budget. “The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the Senate immigration bill… would reduce the budget deficit, so that by 2033, the U.S. federal budget will shrink by about $900 billion.” Considering the large amount of debt that our government is in, this is a significant number.

Another factor that would change is the amount of revenue that would come in. The article states that it would add $184 billion in tax revenue and a $1.7 billion increase in federal revenue. This is a very large amount that could help pay for the many different things that taxes go toward.

Finally, the last thing that legalizing immigrants would do is add jobs. It could create up to 1.4 million new jobs. It did not say that these are the amount of jobs that are going to be in demand, but the amount that will be created. To me, this sounds like it would be a good thing. Yes, some of the immigrants would have these jobs, but it would also make job for those who are already citizens.

This being said, when immigrants come through the country legally, it helps our country in many ways. Hoping that the wall would slow the rate of illegal immigration, the United States would then benefit greatly from having more, legal citizens as opposed to the many, illegal immigrants.

 In my next blog post I will research the question: How would the wall affect the rate of illegal immigration?