Robert Haslag
Jefferson City
Dear Editor:
This government closure is simply useless and the blame clearly lies with the president which was accepted before cameras and the national media when Mr. Trump affirmatively and “gladly” asserted that he would accept the “mantle” of this closure “for border security.” His current insistence that Democrats are to blame when he clearly declared his own willingness to accept the blame is factious. All he is doing is attempting to escape a decision he thought he could bully his way through and that an equal branch of government would meekly submit. They didn’t and he is trapped with his own declaration of responsibility.
As to dogma that this “wall” would be the panacea proposed to address the issue of illegal immigration, contrary to the howling of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter that the wall must be built their insistence only proves this President’s inability to reject the most radical voices on the issue. The simple fact is that it is by no substantive measure anything but a wasted expenditure to coddle his base.
I must note how quickly his supporters who screamed their approval at rallies when he insisted the wall would be paid for by Mexico can now ignore so easily this claim’s irrationality in the first place and then the complete turnaround from the cost being borne by Mexico to now being assumed by our taxpayers. Not a whisper of criticism at his failure to honor this promise.
First, the fact is that a 15-foot wall only sells 16-foot ladders or equipment to build tunnels. The idea of a barrier wall as the answer whether concrete or steel slats is simply facetious. Democrats have consistently supported expenditures for border security in terms of personnel, drones and other technologically more effective tools. Mr. Trump’s assertion that Democrats “don’t care about security at the border” is pure, baseless rhetoric.
Simply, if conservatives really were looking for a solution and not a questionably valuable structure; they would have insisted upon passage by the House in 2013 of Senate Bill 744, which was a clear, well-conceived bi-partisan piece of legislation passing the Senate 68-32.
As to the value of walls, just examine the escape of El Chapo from Puente Grande, a maximum-security prison with high walls topped by razor wire and guard towers surrounding the enclosure. This alone demonstrates the uselessness of walls.