We all know that Donald Trump's stance on any particular thing changes with time but, from the very start of his campaign for the U.S. presidency, he has passionately promoted construction of a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
But as we saw already, the wall isn't really as impenetrable as Mr.Trump claimed.
So if the wall is unable to stop the influx of Drugs and criminals from Mexico, then why is Trump pushing so hard for it's construction?
To understand that, we have to first understand the US-Mexico border situation.
When Trump took office in January 2017, barriers ranging from 18-foot-tall iron fencing to makeshift vehicle barriers and barbed wire spanned about 654 miles of the almost-2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, mostly in California, Arizona and New Mexico. Most of the border land without any wall is in Texas along the Rio Grande River, and much of that is privately owned, meaning the federal government would need to purchase or seize it to build barriers.
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| Trump Wall |
A length of US-Mexico border has already been secured by natural barriers, so Trump promised the construction of a 1000 mile long wall. So how much more wall has Trump gotten built? As of Aug. 7, work had been completed on 30 miles of barriers where none had existed prior to Trump’s presidency, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Of that amount, five miles are “primary” barriers -- the first to be encountered -- while 25 miles are “secondary” barriers beyond the primary ones. Funding had been identified for another 157 miles of new wall that’s “in the pre-construction phase,” according to the agency. That’s subject to interpretation. Along at least another 245 miles of border, better primary and secondary barriers have been built to replace “dilapidated and/or outdated designs,” with more in progress, according to Customs and Border Protection. Trump says such replacements should count as new wall because they involve “complete demolition and rebuilding of old and worthless barriers.” Another detail of the wall construction worth mentioning is that, a company which is building the wall in Arizona, Fisher & Gravel has dozens of environmental, tax and workplace violations dating back to 2000, according to a violations database. So it is believed that they secured the contract with some internal internvention by Trump himself. The primary purpose of the wall as claimed by Trump is to stop drugs and criminals, but as admitted by Trump himself, the wall isn't as impenetrable as he first claimed.
Trump Wall
So what is it about the wall that is more than what meets the eye? Why is Trump pushing so hard for it? It's clear from the information above that Trump is not the first US President who has sanctioned the construction of a border wall, but he is the first one who has politicised the issue to that extent. Nazi German military leader Hermann Göring said at the Nuremberg trials, "it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country. Trump seems to be doing exactly that, by instilling idea of a wall in people's mind he is putting forth a psychological in the minds of American people telling them all things Mexican are harmful and dangerous. This has been done before in ancient China with the Great Wall of China which along with saving the residents, has also instilled a sense of xenophobia among the Han Chinese people which persists even today. Thus the Trump wall is much more than what meets the eyes and can have much greater geopolitical implications than just causing an impact on US-Mexico relations.