According to CNN, the White House has been working on a national emergency declaration in order to build a wall on the Mexican border.

Such a wall is not needed and would be ineffective for the stated purpose. At least one prototype is easily breached with a hardware store power saw. Tunnels are being found on a regular basis going under the border – even where there is no wall. Not to mention that at least half of the illegal immigration happening is not by border jumpers, but by people entering the country legally on visas of one type or other and then just not leaving. This does not even begin to touch on the ecological impact such a wall would have.

An emergency declaration would empower Donald Trump to take money from civil infrastructure (roads, bridges); the military, which the Republican Party is constantly saying is underfunded; Homeland Security (similar squawking); the U.S. Treasury, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is still dealing with Hurricane Harvey (among other true national emergencies), to name just a few unrelated items that could be robbed.

Many places along the border are privately held; Trump’s administration would have to acquire this land by eminent domain.

Poll after poll by multiple sources, including Trump’s favorite, Fox News, shows that the majority of Americans do not want a border wall. When Trump took office two years ago, he had a Republican majority in the Senate and House, and could not get their approval for the wall. So why is this suddenly a national emergency?

Jeffrey Kaplan

Biddeford