Growing up in a very Republican family, I myself grew up to become Republican as well. However, I also formulated ideas that deterred from the Republican beliefs as well. In the current campaign, I've been on the (no pun intended) “fence” with one of the few candidates I've come to like, that being Donald Trump. This “see-saw” feeling derives from the fact that he seems like the best thing America needs at one point- but then very ignorant and outlandish during other times. As if his campaign isn't for the good of the American people, but rather for the publicity and gains in his reputation. Despite the fact that I support many of Trump's ideas for this country, one of his ideas, to me, screams “Publicity Stunt!”. On his campaign website, www.donaldjtrump.com, there is an article under his “immigration reform” position, with the title, “Make Mexico pay for the Wall”. Trump goes on about illegal immigration, crime, bad trade deals, millions of lost jobs, and the overall negative effects Mexico has apparently been “subjecting” us to.
The statement in itself, “Make Mexico Pay for the Wall,” is very controversial and is obviously shedding some of the spotlight onto Mr. Trump. Former Mexican President Vicente Fox is not a huge fan of Mr. Trump. In a CNN interview with Fox, he stated, “I'm not going to pay for that wall.” He also stated, “Trump is crazy. He cannot solve all these problems of all these people.” The loud statement by Trump and the comments against it by the former Mexican president, made me ponder if Trump is really right about this wall he wants to build. After much research, I've come to the conclusion that we can only blame ourselves for these happenings and in my opinion, in this case, Trump really doesn’t have a clue of what he's talking about. Mexico isn't going to pay for the wall, here’s why:
Mexico isn't the reason why our country has a lack of security.
If you are fully aware of the dangerous neighborhood you live in, why would you leave your doors and windows open, if you didn't want to get robbed? If you got robbed for leaving your doors and windows open, wouldn’t the only person to blame be yourself? I use this analogy because I strongly feel this is exactly what America has done- left all of our “doors” and “windows” open. In the literal sense, I feel the United States’ carefree ways with handing out visas, the influx of illegal immigrants,terrorism, crime, and drug trafficking are just some prime examples of why our security needs to be heightened. Mexico’s government hands out pamphlets giving step by step instructions of how to illegally immigrate to the United States. Isn’t that enough of a red flag for the United States? I'm sure many other countries have the same pamphlets as well.
Trump states on his campaign website, in the “Make Mexico pay for the wall” article, “[we can] impound remittance payments derived from illegal wages.” Why make them pay? We gave them every reason to come to this country. Wages lost to illegal immigrants would have never happened if our security was better. Furthermore, what about all of the other illegal immigrants in this country that aren't from Mexico? Why is Donald Trump so focused on the Mexican community? In my opinion, the only wrong thing that Mexico is doing is taking advantage of how careless of a country we are being. With such a huge variety of illegal immigrants in the United States, I guess you could say the whole world is taking advantage of our carelessness. Hopefully, Trump isn’t pointing fingers just to find a way to pay for the wall. However, the question of funding still lingers.
Mexico isn’t the threat-the cartels are. The Mexican drug war wouldn’t affect us if we protected our borders more. Small undercover tactics aren't enough to defeat the cartels.
This is very much related to the previous paragraph, in the terms of security. On Trump's campaign website under his “Pay for the Wall” position, he states, “Mexico has taken advantage of us in another way as well: gangs, drug traffickers, and cartels have freely exploited our open borders and committed vast numbers of crimes inside of the United States.” Let me repeat the one part of that quote again, “our open borders.” Essentially, none of this would have happened if our borders weren't as open as they are right now. If our government increases the protection of the border, then people wouldn't come here illegally and do things like bring over drugs and drug paraphernalia. Furthermore, the easy access to this country gives cartels and drug dealers from all over the world an easy way to make money and further maintain many addictions in America.
Mexico isn't the main part of the world where drugs are made. Drugs come from all parts of the world, especially in places in South America; like Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia. Because Mexico is right next to an easy target with lots of customers (aka. The United States) , it is used a passageway. Cartels from South America pass on the drugs to the Mexican cartels or just pass through the country of Mexico to the United States. We need to decrease our vulnerability. Former President of Mexico, during a CNN interview, spoke about the hypocrisy of the United States and said, “The country that most consumes drugs is the country that is not doing anything within the territory to fight the war.” Furthermore, as a country, we have only attempted to defeat the cartels only a few times-all attempts ineffective. The problem is: the cartels in Mexico have more soldiers (about 100,000) than the Mexican army has. So why hasn't the United States sent over troops to help them out? In my opinion, in order to help ourselves we must help them. By doing nothing and perusing tactics that lead to nothing, we are only making the war worse and allowing the cartels to grow.
In one instance, The Obama Administration and the ATF (American Tobacco Firearms and Explosives) sold firearms to straw purchasers to track down members of the cartels. This action was called, “gunwalking” and this operation lasted from 2006 to 2011. At one point, a smaller mission in the tactic was called, “operation fast and furious” because one of the suspects belonged to a car club. In the 2,000 firearms arms sold to the straw purchasers, only about 710 were recovered. The tactic turned out to be a bust and no high level cartel figures had been arrested. Along with the unfortunate ending, about 150 innocent civilians were killed. Many U.S agents were killed as well. In order to successfully stop the crime and drug trafficking- The United States must do more than what we are doing right now. In my opinion, unlike what Mr. Trump had said, Mexico isn't the problem. If this is called a “Drug War”, I think we need to treat it like one and help Mexico by sending our troops over there. Instead of doing what Donald Trump wants to do and make them pay for what they've “done” when all Mexico really needs is a helping hand.
Our trade with Mexico is the best it has been in over 30 years. NAFTA is working.
Under the, “Make Mexico pay for the Wall” article, on the “immigration reform” position, on his campaign website, he states, “...Mexico continues to make millions on our bad trade deals.” Trump then goes on and talks about a different topic, not giving much detail or support about his previous statement. In 1994, the United States, Canada, and Mexico formed a trade agreement in order to increase prosperity and economic growth for all 3 countries. This agreement was called, “The North American Free Trade Agreement” or for short, “NAFTA”. After NAFTA took effect, Mexico became our 3rd largest trading partner. NAFTA became the world’s largest free trading zones. According to www.NAFTAnow.org , NAFTA’s official website , in the United States, NAFTA increased jobs by 23%. That's about 37.9 million jobs. The agreement caused the trade between Mexico and the United States to quadruple.
The North American economy has grown drastically since NAFTA- almost double in size! In 2008, our GDP surpassed 17 trillion dollars. That is about a 10 trillion dollar increase since 1993. According to www.cfr.org , Gary Clyde Hufbauer and Jeffrey J. Schott, experts at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and the authors of , “NAFTA Revisited: Achievements and Challenges” had said, “NAFTA was designed to promote economic growth by spurring competition in domestic markets and promoting investment from both domestic and foreign sources. It has worked.”
Furthermore, Trump may be looking at the trade deficit numbers, giving him a reason to think trade with Mexico has gone down the toilet. In 2015, the United States imported 53.8 billion dollars more of goods than Mexico imported. However, that number is much lower than it has been in recent years. According to the U.S Census Bureau, From 2006 to 2012, the trade deficit between the U.S and Mexico plateaued at 60 billion dollars. In 2007, the deficit between the United States and Mexico reached an all time high of 75 billion dollars. However, these are not the numbers Donald Trump and everyone else should be looking at. In order to accurately calculate trade imbalance, you must compare how large the deficit is to the amount the United States has exported to Mexico. This will then give you a percentage. As things in the world become more expensive- the number of the deficit will increase. Due to that, that process is inaccurate. The percentage is more accurate and will show you how much of the deficit number were the exports from the United States to a country. The lower the percentage- the more balance there is in trade.
Now, if we go back to 1985, a few years before NAFTA was established; according to the U.S Census Bureau, the trade deficit between the United States and Mexico was 5.5 billion dollars. However, that 5.5 billion dollars was 40.3% of the over all exports from the United States to Mexico. A year after NAFTA was established, in 1995, that deficit decreased to 34.1%. By 2015, the deficit has gone down to 22.4%. If proven by fact, that our trade is getting better with Mexico after NAFTA, then why is Donald Trump so against the agreement and blaming Mexico for these apparent “bad trade deals?”
Globalization and outsourcing jobs is the one flaw in NAFTA causing much more unemployment than employment. However, the United States agreed to this deal. We wanted NAFTA.
We wanted NAFTA, so why is Trump blaming Mexico for something we agreed to? Furthermore, we are outsourcing jobs to other countries other than Mexico, like China, Japan, and India. Outsourcing jobs to Mexico may have played a part in job losses- but not completely. The Huffington post states that,”for every job lost to Mexico, 3 are lost to China.”
Other countries that the United States trades with have higher deficit percents then Mexico has with us.
Based on the U.S Census Bureau, in 2014, there was a 343 billion dollar deficit between what the U.S was exporting and what China was importing. That's nearly a 35% deficit. Again in 2014, Germany and the United States had a 73 billion dollar deficit. That percentage was about 62% . If other countries have worse deficits with us and we are doing so well with Mexico- then why is Trump is focusing on Mexico for trade problems?
In Conclusion,
These arguments made may be similar to the arguments Mexico may say in relation to Trump’s proposition if he becomes president. If Mexico doesn't pay for the wall, then who will? One thing that I do agree with Donald Trump on, is that he wants to bring the jobs back to this country. If this country crowd-sources then our wealth will increase. This wealth could possibly be enough to pay for this wall, our need for heightened border security and immigration control, and cure many of the issues affecting this country. Furthermore, with the wealth, we may be able to help other countries, like Mexico, with the drug cartels and with the effects of crowd-sourcing. All of this will be possible once we focus on ourselves and nurture what our country needs. Instead of doing what Trump is doing, ignorantly pointing fingers at others. In all sincerity Mr. Trump, I do think you are a strong candidate. However, before you blame someone- At least do your homework first. You're making yourself look more like the attention addicted idiot that many people in America already think you are.
