Besides “Make America Great Again”, one of Donald Trump’s infamous campaign slogan was “build a wall.” This building of walls came about when Donald Trump promised, during his 2016 presidential campaign, to create a barrier between Mexico and United States, which would in turn fix America’s illegal immigration problem. The start of this “great Trump wall” began January of 2017 with two executive orders that established the foundation of the wall, boosted border control, and increased the number of enforcement officers. After several months, in late August, Donald Trump assigned a 30 day period of prototypes to be designed and created. According to prototypes made for the Trump wall, the wall will be 30 feet tall and 30 feet wide, durable, have anti-climbing features,  solar panels, and, ironically, aesthetic beauty. The whole idea behind such a luxurious wall is to make it efficient while keeping illegal immigrants out. Although the results of the wall have benefits in the future, according to the article, The Trump Administration has already started building the border wall, but building the wall will be no easy matter.

The first obstacle Donald Trump will face are financial issues. Building a wall for about 1,900 miles will obviously take time and money from our pockets; around 10bn in US dollars to be exact- estimated by the Donald Trump administration. So who will lend over all this cash? There were talks between Mexico and US in which President Trump declared he will make Mexico pay for the wall. Yet, from the looks of Mexico’s president, Pena Nieto’s reaction shows that won’t be happening soon. As a result, “initially” United States will pay for the wall. To supply such a large sum, there are several different options to choose from. America can raise tariffs on Mexican import, or levy a border adjustment tax or even increase travel visa and boarding fees to Mexico, yet each option proves to have a milestone of its own.

Even after solving the financial issue, United States has to consider what a wall, stretching across millions of ecosystems will do the environment. To give just one example, migratory animals can’t access species on both sides of the border. Animals like North American Black Bears need to cross the border to mate with Mexican Black Bears to survive. With this in mind, an enormous wall separating these two environments can’t be too healthy for the Black Bears.  Then there is the obvious: cutting trees, exploiting land, digging into healthy soil, that makes many environmentalist object to the idea of a wall.

The Trump Wall affects the lives of Yorba Linda High School students as well. For one, the student body will be divided among the immigrants and the nonimmigrants. As surprising as it seems, a simple matter like building a wall on the Mexican border can create a barrier in our campus. In addition, students are worried about the consequences of having a Trump Wall. A student at Yorba Linda High school, Logan Langdon (11), “ [thinks] that if anything the law will prove to be more of a problem because it disrupts the circular flow of immigration.” Although having a Trump Wall do have its benefits, it proves to be a difficult matter when discussing how to actually “build” the wall.