February 6, 2018, would have been President Ronald Reagen’s 107th birthday. Perhaps one of the greatest modern Republican presidents, Reagan saw our great country through the end of the Cold War.

One of his most iconic quotes is, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Ironic, isn’t it? The Republicans, who claim they admire President Reagan, want to build a wall on the US-Mexico border, and President Reagan was known for wanting them torn down

President Reagan delivered that line during a speech in Berlin, calling for the then leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to bring down the Berlin Wall that divided East and West Berlin. And, as of President Reagan’s most recent birthday, that wall has now been down longer than it ever was up.

“Good fences make good neighbors,” a plaque on the Ohio-Michigan state line reads. Well, when it comes to countries, that’s not exactly the case.

You see, no wall in history has ever accomplished its goal.

The Berlin Wall, as stated before, eventually fell on November 9, 1989, but many people before that had successfully climbed over it. The Great Wall of China, though still standing, was built to keep out invaders, but it, too, failed.

There is always a way around a wall, and though they seem to be, no wall is permanent. As mentioned before, the Great Wall of China is technically still standing, but it is rapidly disappearing due to erosion, looting, and tourism. So, even if the US does build a wall, there’s no guarantee that it’s going to last.

On top of that, the logic behind the justifications for a wall is faulty. One common claim is that it is going to keep drugs out of our country, but is it? Most drugs that enter this country do so via ships and containers, meaning that drug smugglers rely more on the ocean than they do on the US-Mexico border.

As for the whole “stopping illegal immigration” argument, that, too, is faulty. The fences already up do little to deter people from crossing illegally, only encouraging them to take the more dangerous paths, so a wall would only encourage more desperate people to do this — leading to more deaths.

And as always, there are ways around a wall, such as tunneling under or climbing over.

Additionally, a wall covering the entire US-Mexican border is extremely unrealistic due to the fact that it would be practically impossible to build it in the areas where there are already mountains and rivers.

Not only is a border wall unrealistic and unjustifiable, but it could also potentially hurt Americans. Obviously, there is no way that Mexico would ever pay for a wall that they don’t want — it’s a sovereign country with it’s own problems. But the US is also dependent on Mexico for many things, including fresh produce during the winter months.

If the government were to increase tax on Mexican products in order to fund the wall, as was proposed several months ago, it would be the American people who ultimately have to pay for it as the prices of fresh produce and other agricultural products from Mexico go up.

And of course, there is the obvious fact that a border wall will hinder US-Mexico relations. Building a wall isn’t exactly a great way to make friends, and Mexico is one of our biggest trading partners — kind of obvious, considering the only other neighbor the US has is Canada.

Now, nobody is suggesting to let people just flow into the country unchecked. Yes, we do need an immigration policy that will help solve illegal immigration; however, there really is no justification to waste the projected billions of dollars on a wall that won’t work and won’t last.

Not only has it been proven that the wall will do little to stop illegal immigration and drug smuggling, but history has proven time and time again that walls don’t work, and they don’t last. So instead of building them, why don’t we work on tearing them down as President Reagan proposed to Gorbachev in his most iconic line.

Good fences don’t make good neighbors when it comes to foreign policy. Walls are only built to fail.