Would the Wall Truly Affect the Rate of Illegal Immigration?

SOURCE: Fat Check

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 “Would the wall truly affect the rate of illegal immigration?”

The videos published by Fox News, titled “Would The Wall Stop Illegal Immigrants?” and Sky News titled “Donald Trump’s Wall: How Would The Plan Work?” demonstrates this economic principle by showing that attempts to stop illegal immigration, such as a fence, have already helped to slow the number. 

First of all, as of now, there is a fence along 700 miles of the border of the U.S. and Mexico. As shown in the graph above, since the 2006 Secure Fence Act passed, there has been a slow decrease in the amount of immigrants that come across the border. Considering that the border is almost 2,000 miles long, though, it of course will not stop all of it.

Second, in the last few years there have been more illegal immigrants than ever before. At a point, there were 300-400 people crossing the San Francisco border every day. I personally think that this is an incredibly high number, especially considering that this is only in one spot of the U.S. and Mexico border.

Finally, San Francisco has already put up a three-fenced border in their city. This has been a very effective tactic for the city and slowing the number of immigrants illegally crossing the border. It has been effective because it slows down the traffic at the border causing border patrol to be able to more easily intercepts those trying to cross it. The 300-400 people crossing daily has majorly decreased since the triple-fence has gone up.

Overall, I think that since a more secure border wall would effectively aid in decreasing the amount of immigrants crossing the border illegally. It has been proven to work in other places, not only in the U.S. Since it is a problem that definitely does need to be solved, a wall seems like it could be a good solution to consider.

In my next blog post I will research the question: How would it affect drug and human trafficking?