The money doesn’t add up

Since Mexico is not paying for Trump’s wall and the GOP wants us to pay for it, what exactly can we expect to receive for this $5 billion in American taxpayer money?  The Department of Homeland Security estimates that it will cost $21.6 billion to build a wall where none exists.

It costs roughly $17 million to build a mile of wall.  The entire length of the U.S./Mexico border is 1,933 miles. Take out your calculator. To build a brand new wall designed to Trump’s taste along the entire length will cost at least $32.8 billion. At best, Trump’s request of $5 billion can only fund 294 miles of wall. Unless the entire wall is built, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that it can be easily circumvented.

So, why exactly has Trump shut down our government? Why is he driving hundreds of thousands of federal employees into financial ruin? For part of a wall that most experts believe is an outdated response to a 21st century issue? Tell your representatives on Capitol Hill to reopen the government and start negotiating for genuine comprehensive immigration reform.

Nancy Schoenleber

Milford, PA.

Foreign policy needed

We have read many articles from both Republicans and Democrats about the “crisis” along our southern border.  Most agree that we have a serious “problem” with border security. The ideas for dealing with that “problem” vary greatly.  But there is something gravely wrong. Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. We have added more wall, deployed more ICE agents, made more arrests and sent more people home. Yet the “problem” continues.  

The real problem is on the other side of the border.  There are desperate people wanting to find work or asylum. I have not read anything calling for the United States to assist these countries economically in some way similar to the Marshall Plan after WWII, which proved to be very successful. Instead we have  given away American surplus corn, for example, to our neighbors to the south, undermining the local economy, where real neighbors growing corn could therefore not make a profit. (I saw this as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador). Other “charitable projects” are also conducted by private and public U.S. interests in these countries that do more harm than good to the economies of the respective nations. 

At the border, there must be provisions for reasonable screening, e.g. criminal records and health issues before those who want to find jobs or asylum are allowed to enter.  Simultaneously, we can begin economic development (public, for-profit and non-profit) in these countries.  

Mr. Trump, end the shutdown so that those in the White House and Congress can get to work fixing the real problem: the lack of a sane foreign policy that would help these struggling nations south of our border.

Cordell Bowman

Shohola, PA