The Pros And Cons Of Harmful Immigrants
President Trump has vowed to build a wall along the US-Mexico border designed to prevent illegal immigration.
As the son of an asylum seeker, I would argue that this policy is a fool's errand. First, there are numerous ways for "bad hombres" to enter the United States beside slogging through the badlands. Second, history has not been kind to man-made barriers erected for the sake of excluding people or for keeping the peace.
Case in point, the remnants of once formidable walls lie in ruin around the world. In 120 A.D., the Romans built Hadrian's Wall to protect the inhabitants of Roman- occupied England from the so-called "barbarians" who live in what is now Scotland. Chinese rulers fearing Mongol invasions acted on the same impulse, they began construction on the Great Wall hundred of …show more content…
But for all the rhetoric calling for a ban on undesirable immigrants and against mass migration, the question remains: Has a wall ever worked? There's amplevidence to suggest that walls, fences and barriers meant to stem the tide migration, or to reduce conflict, are stopgap measures at best. The upshot, in terms of dispute resolution, a wall should be the option of last resort, reserved for those occasions when diplomatic efforts to resolve conflicts between nations and warring factions collapse.
I'd provide brief case studies on the historic use of border walls as instruments of power. Hadrian's Wall, The Great Wall of China and the Berlin Wall are a good starting point. And it may come as a surprise to some, that despite President Trump's executive order, 600 miles of border fence traverse populated sections of four western US border states. I live 20 minutes from the San Diego - Tijuana and I've covered border relations on numerous occasions, including this essay on the pleasures and perils of of
As the son of an asylum seeker, I would argue that this policy is a fool's errand. First, there are numerous ways for "bad hombres" to enter the United States beside slogging through the badlands. Second, history has not been kind to man-made barriers erected for the sake of excluding people or for keeping the peace.
Case in point, the remnants of once formidable walls lie in ruin around the world. In 120 A.D., the Romans built Hadrian's Wall to protect the inhabitants of Roman- occupied England from the so-called "barbarians" who live in what is now Scotland. Chinese rulers fearing Mongol invasions acted on the same impulse, they began construction on the Great Wall hundred of …show more content…
But for all the rhetoric calling for a ban on undesirable immigrants and against mass migration, the question remains: Has a wall ever worked? There's amplevidence to suggest that walls, fences and barriers meant to stem the tide migration, or to reduce conflict, are stopgap measures at best. The upshot, in terms of dispute resolution, a wall should be the option of last resort, reserved for those occasions when diplomatic efforts to resolve conflicts between nations and warring factions collapse.
I'd provide brief case studies on the historic use of border walls as instruments of power. Hadrian's Wall, The Great Wall of China and the Berlin Wall are a good starting point. And it may come as a surprise to some, that despite President Trump's executive order, 600 miles of border fence traverse populated sections of four western US border states. I live 20 minutes from the San Diego - Tijuana and I've covered border relations on numerous occasions, including this essay on the pleasures and perils of of