Ever since Trump declared that he would “build a wall” for his presidential campaign in June 2015, the debate on whether a wall was necessary and/or worth the billions of dollars of investment has become a major issue. To briefly explain, President Trump promised the American people that building a wall would either fix or improve the illegal immigration wave coming from Mexico and South American countries. Following his inauguration, President Trump officially began building his wall on January of 2017. Through two executive orders, specifically the “Border Security and Immigration Enforcements Improvements,” Trump established the foundation of the walls, boosted border control, and increased the number of enforcement officers.  

Recently, there has been even more controversy on this topic as President Trump appealed for $2.6 billion in paying for the wall’s expenses. At first, Trump declared that Mexico would pay for the wall, yet this suggestion was quickly shut down as the President of Mexico declared that the subject was an internal U.S matter.

With an ongoing dilemma on who will actually pay for the wall, opposition on this matter is growing. Specifically, beginning on December 22, 2018, there was a government shutdown as Congress and the White House failed to agree on the $5.7 Billion dollars, request by President Trump in order to build the wall. Amber Li (12) was “concerned when [she] first heard about the government shutdown.” According ThoughtCo, by January 12, this government shutdown was the longest in history. More than 800,000 federal workers were at standstill, affecting not only the government, but also roads/streets, public facilities, and national parks/recreational centers. Finally, on January 25, the government was temporarily reopened.

More recently, on February 15, Trump signed a spending and border security plan into law in order to prevent the government from shutting down again. In turn, he declared a national emergency to fund his proposed wall. A national emergency declaration gave the president the ability to tap into various emergency powers. In this case, President Trump wants to use Section 2808 of the Title 10 U.S code which allows military construction projects not authorized by the law.  In other words, President Trump would have the ability to redirect military funds into building a wall.

Over the last couple of months, there seems to be even more conflict at the US Southern border. Specifically, in November or 2018, a caravan of 7,000 migrants arrived at the US-Mexico border which made headline news. Many of these migrants were fleeing from violence in countries like Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Not to mention, the increase in border control has caused physical conflicts between both sides of the wall.

Today, there is an ongoing debate on whether a wall should be built or rather whether the expenses are worth the cause. Whatever standpoint one takes, it is clear that this is no simple matter.