Immigration walls do not work - an echo opinion from Virginia

An opinion letter published in The Virginian Pilot:

WALLS ARE a medieval solution to an age-old issue — migration. 

The stupid, expensive, useless and cruel Trumpzi evil wall

Since the earliest times, people have moved over the surface of the planet trying to improve their lives. They make a harrowing decision to uproot themselves from the place they know, who they know, the patterns of their ancestry and their language and culture to a place where everything is unknown.

Today, migrants are moving out of the Middle East due to endless war and famine. We have Central Americans are coming to America because of death threats, hunger and joblessness.

The current political climate has not helped their plight. To be crystal clear: It is not against any laws for migrants to seek asylum after crossing the border.

Despite the numbers of people seeking asylum here, illegal immigration is at its lowest point since 2007. But the anti-immigrant rhetoric has only increased. The current White House occupant has claimed, falsely, that migrants are disease-ridden invaders and parasites who exist solely to take things from hard-working Americans. These words are specifically designed to incite fear and loathing so that Americans will look for a leader to "save us" from these "others." Anyone who buys this line should be ashamed. The (henious!) Trump administration's policy of separating children from their families is one of the most shameful episodes in our nation's history, right up there with our history of slavery and the internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II.

Trump wrongly wants a huge, forbidding wall. But it is unnecessary and expensive. The budget proposed to build the wall is more than has been spent since the inception of Customs and Border Patrol. And he says that Mexico will pay for it.

But walls don’t work. They can be impressive, such as the Great Wall of China. Or oppressive, such as the Berlin wall. They can be torn down, tunneled under, climbed over or circumvented. They can even stymie security efforts as well as function as a physical barrier to birds and bugs and other important natural migrants. But they don’t actually work in the long run.

It’s beyond time that some perspective be introduced into this boondoggle. We all need to step back and look at the situation through clear lenses, not those of red or blue. Of course, our borders should be secure, and we have proved that they are, since fewer immigrants are coming here.

We need to help people improve their lives at home, so they don't have to come here. And we also need to recognize and celebrate the ideas that have made this country such a beacon for people in need. To do anything less is simply un-American.

Nancy Pope from Norfolk Virginia