Back in 2017 while running president, Donald Trump promoted the construction of a wall or border between the United States and Mexico. Not only the construction, but with the promise Mexico would pay for it. It’s now 2019 and still no new wall he talked about. There have been plans of a 722 mile barrier that has been estimated as low as $8 billion up to as much as $67 billion. Democratic Senator Claire Mccaskill’s office estimated the per mile cost would be $37 million per mile or around 67 billion for a 2,000 mile border. Congressional Republicans have said that they expect a wall to cost from $12 billion to $15 billion based on the existing border.

The problem is that the government doesn’t own the border, ⅔ of the land is private or state owned, mostly in Texas. Trump’s administration could seek eminent domain to seize land needed for the wall as well as support roads and infrastructure. Though that may lead to very costly challenges as well as delaying construction for years after his terms over.

So how is Trump going to make Mexico pay for the wall? Most likely he isn’t. President Enrique Pena Nieto has refused to pay for the wall, but Trump won’t stop. He has suggested that if they don’t pay up they’ll get the expenses from Mexico another way. For example from closing our trading surplus with them or invoking the Patriot Act. At the end of the day if Mexico doesn’t pay like Trump promises, U.S. taxpayers will.

Even though the students at AHS have never voted for anything worthwhile in their life they do have their opinions, whether that’s influenced by their parents beliefs or medias. A major Trump supporter, Ethan Senn(11) supports the wall saying “It’ll motivate people to come here legally”. By “people” he means immigrants. He says that this is because if the wall is built, immigrants will be less willing to cross the border because it’ll take a lot of effort to cross.

Fellow classmate Kaitlyn Darby(11) begs to differ, unlike Senn, Darby is very liberal. While speaking with her she said “Trump is looking for a simple solution for a complex problem”. While interviewing Darby she also said that “The wall is a concrete symbol of racism in America”. For Darby it is heartbreaking to see that our country is supporting the wall when these immigrants are only seeking refuge for them and their families. By building the wall she said that were denying our past and discrediting everything we were built on.