Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs
By
Dudley L. Poston, Jr.
President Donald Trump will get the several billions of dollars of funds and support from Congress and the leaders of the border states to complete the wall. But the point is not whether he will complete the wall during his second term.The question should be: When the border wall is completed, will it work?And the answer is an unequivocal no. There are a lot of issues involved.A border wall won’t reduce the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. and could well have the opposite effect. Plus, it won’t stop drugs and contraband from entering the U.S.Almost one-quarter of the 46.2 million people living in the U.S. in 2022 who were born in another country, or about 11.7 million people, are undocumented immigrants. These are the immigrants Trump wants deported.But Trump apparently doesn’t know that more than two-fifths (40 percent) of these undocumented immigrants, or almost 4.7 million, are visa overstayers.
Migrants and advocates wave Mexican hold signs as they take part in a demonstration near the border wall in Playas de Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico on January 19, 2025, a day before U.S. President…
Migrants and advocates wave Mexican hold signs as they take part in a demonstration near the border wall in Playas de Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico on January 19, 2025, a day before U.S. President Donald Trump took office.
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GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP via Getty Images
They entered the U.S. with legal passports and legal visas but either stayed past their visa expiration dates or otherwise violated the terms of their admission into the U.S., perhaps by accepting employment.Most flew in legally from Asia, Europe and other continents, and entered at major airports in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Houston and elsewhere. Trump’s border wall won’t be high enough to keep them out.I don’t think that Trump presently has any plans to address the issue of visa overstayers. At least, I’ve not heard of any. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security does not match entry and exit records of people coming into and leaving the U.S.Congress mandated an electronic entry-exit system more than 25 years ago, but it has not been implemented because of objections from the tourism industry and other groups.A biometric entry-exit system would keep tabs on most of the people entering and exiting the U.S. and would reduce the number of visa overstayers. But the implementation of such a system does not appear to be in Trump’s plans.He only wants to complete the wall.The 7 million or so undocumented immigrants in the U.S. who are not visa overstayers are formally referred to by demographers and immigration officials as EWIs, persons who “entered without inspection.”They entered the U.S. without detection or used fraudulent documents when crossing the border. Almost all of them entered at the U.S.-Mexico border, and until recently most of them were from Mexico. Now, most are from Central America.Demographers have conducted extensive research about EWIs. They are not criminals, and they don’t take jobs from U.S.-born Americans.Almost all EWIs end up in jobs Americans don’t want to do. These are the 3-D jobs, the ones that are dirty, dangerous and demeaning. Demographers have found little, if any, evidence that EWIs harm or suppress the employment or wages of local people.In his first address in 2017 to a joint session of Congress, Trump stated that EWIs cost the U.S. “many billions of dollars a year.” But this is not true.About half of EWIs pay taxes. Millions of them file tax returns every year, paying for benefits they’re not permitted to use.The American Immigration Council reported recently that in 2022, households led by undocumented immigrants paid $75.6 billion in total taxes. And they most likely won’t get any of it back in Social Security and Medicare payments.
President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC.
President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on January 20, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
What about the wall stopping violent criminals from entering the U.S? Trump stated in 2015 that his wall would keep criminals, drug dealers and rapists from entering the U.S.Extensive criminological research has shown time and time again that foreign-born people have considerably lower crime rates than do the U.S.-born.Why won’t a border wall keep out EWIs? Only the strongest and most advantaged people attempt the crossing.Demographers have studied the “selectivity” of migration. They’ve shown that with Trump’s wall, the journey to the U.S. will become more dangerous, and many migrants will fail. But eventually most will succeed.Trump’s wall will not keep this strong-willed, motivated and talented population out of this country. Trump’s wall will cause the migrants to settle and stay in the U.S., and not return to their home countries.Drugs? This is an easy argument to dismiss because most illicit drugs don’t enter the U.S. via people sneaking across the border.Researchers at the Brookings Institute have shown that most drugs smuggled into the U.S. do not arrive on the backs of those who cross illegally.The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reported several years ago that Mexican drug cartels bring the bulk of their drugs over the southern border through ports of entry via trucks, passenger vehicles and tractor-trailers.Trump states his wall will work because border walls have worked elsewhere. He has noted that China’s Great Wall is an example of the success of a physical barrier.No. China’s wall—actually a series of walls—took almost 2,000 years to build at a cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. But China’s walls did not keep out foreigners.The Mongols entered China despite the walls and ruled China in the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), and the Manchu entered China around the walls and ruled China in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Indeed, virtually all the famous walls in the world did not/do not work.I predict that if Trump’s wall is completed, within 10 years there will be at least as many EWIs as now (6 to 7 million), maybe several million more.This means that along with the 5 million visa overstayers, there will be more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., most of whom will become part of a permanently settled population of residents.Thus, an investment of several billions of dollars intended to complete the building of the wall to keep people out of the United States will keep people in the United States.Trump’s wall, if completed, won’t work.Dudley L. Poston, Jr. is emeritus professor of sociology at Texas A&M University.All views expressed are the author’s own.
