Mr Trump, how about installing a door in your border wall?

President Trump

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington DC 20500

10 May 2017 

Dear President Trump, 

Actually, this wall you want to build on our southern border with Mexico sometimes makes a bit of sense to me.  Right now, there are a lot of people, many of them refugees or just people looking for a chance to make a living wage, who cross the border hoping for a better, safer life.  Unfortunately, though, those trying to make the border crossing are at the mercy of smugglers and end up dying in the desert.  If the idea of the wall is to make that dangerous passage seem less attractive, I can see how it could actually help some people – but only if it was combined with a much more open immigration policy.   

If we were to build a wall and at the same time keep our current level of immigration, I doubt it would change the numbers of people trying to get over our border.  If a refugee has the choice of certain death in a war-torn or dangerous country behind them or an outside chance of success and safety by tunneling under a wall; or riding in a hidden compartment of a truck or a shipping container; or paddling a raft in dangerous seas, logic dictates that they will try the dangerous path that at least gives them a chance. 

But if the choice is between a relatively quick and easy vetting process followed by legal immigration, obviously that approach would be preferable than taking a chance with the wall, even if it means waiting a couple of weeks.  And the advantage to such an approach is it would lead to us being able to do a thorough check on those coming in.  Of course, we  would need to hire more people to process immigration requests and do background checks.  

But if you build a wall and maintain a highly restrictive immigration policy, you will only be accomplishing these three things:  1. You will drive the price the smugglers can ask even higher – probably resulting to an increased flow of money to criminal gangs.  2. You will encourage as many or more people to enter the country through other means – giving terrorists and those who wish to do ill to the country an even better chance to sneak in with the masses. 3.  You will be wasting my tax dollars building an ineffective wall. 

And at bottom, underneath all this, is a simple idea.  America should be a place that welcomes refugees and helps our neighbors.  Are we now going to turn our backs on desperate families and children and those who need our help?  Is that the kind of country we are?  Do we hide behind walls for fear of a handful of terrorist slugs?  To do so is not befitting the home of the free and the land of the brave.  To do so is to aid and abet the terrorists by swelling their ranks with those who have been turned away by the America they have dreamed of.  

So before you build the wall, Mr. President, open up our immigration policies and let them walk in through the door. 

Regards, 

Bill Boerman-Cornell