Well, you seem to be against the wall and your argument against it is not very strong.
If visa overstays and refugees were the major source of illegal immigrants we wouldn’t see the largest concentration of illegals in the border states.
The wall wasn’t Trump’s idea. Most republicans have been running on that platform for a long time. It was a part of Mitt Romney’s plan in 2012 and most republican members of congress are in favor of it. This is not going away. Construction will begin this year and someday it will be finished.
The only people against it frankly are the ones near the border states who benefit from cheap labor and drug trafficking. The opposition from democrats is weak and they will cave fast. The unions are all in favor of it.
Walls are not a symbol of decline. Just the opposite. The Romans and the Chinese built walls at the height of their civilizations.
“Well, you seem to be against the wall and your argument against it is not very strong”
I’m very pro wall and have been even before the GOP Congress passed the Secure Fence Act of 2006. You may recall after Congress passed that law the Bush administration opted to waste over $1 billion on a “virtual” fence instead of a physical wall. It is interesting the GOP Congress at the time only appropriate funds for 650 miles of physical barrier and that 650 miles was completed during the Obama administration. All this turned out to be was meaningless pandering to the GOP voter base and a billion dollar contract with Boeing (political payoff perhaps) which ended up being a total waste of taxpayer money.
As you correctly pointed out most Republicans have been saying they support a wall in their campaign rhetoric. Even George W. Bush supported the wall. Of course he also supported amnesty and like his successor was extremely lax in enforcing existing immigration laws. As we saw in 2006, a GOP Congress and GOP president, despite the rhetoric, failed to deliver on their campaign promises. While they say they are in favor of the wall, they never seem to appropriate the money to complete the project they already approved in 2006.
The same players (except Trump) are still running the show. Ryan and McConnell could have brought a border wall bill to a floor vote in the first 30 days of this administration. They are stonewalling and unless Trump delivers on his pledge to get Mexico to pay for the wall, GOP Congressional leaders are slow walking the wall so it will die. Even if conservatives in the House include it in the budget or force a vote on wall specific legislation, it will die in the Senate where there are more than enough GOP senators who will side with the Democrats against the wall. Likely it will simply not emerge from House/Senate conference.
If the wall wasn’t just a fake campaign pledge Trump needs to get on the road using the bully pulpit to pressure Congress. Otherwise the GOP leadership in Congress will not include it in the budget bill.
We’ll see who is right. I hear the same lip service from the GOP leaders in Congress we heard in 2006. However, to date there is no action. The new budget year begins October 1. Where’s the beef?