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[ZNPaaneah]

To sum up -- we have had a fence/barrier on the Mexican border for many years now without anyone saying one peep about racism, insults to Mexico, waste of money, ineffective, etc. This barrier is in high traffic areas like El Paso, but in the more remote parts of the border it isn't there. I cannot see anything radical in the idea of extending it, though making it go continuously from the Gulf to the Pacific might be extreme, I am pretty sure that option has already been taken off the table. I can also see the description of a "wall" or a "concrete wall" or an Israel like wall could be seen as extreme.

The cost of $5 billion has been bandied about as some kind of exorbitant waste, yet when viewed in light of the annual budget it is minuscule and when viewed in light of the cost of crime committed by illegal aliens that came across that border it is also minuscule (about 10%).

No one is disputing the fact that Trump ran on a promise to build this "wall" and that those who voted for him support this. The idea that 40 million people in this country cannot view their vote as a referendum that impacts about 0.1% of the US budget for a single year is offensive and unreasonable to me.

Other than that their has been a lot of hysterical rhetoric that infers the absolute worst motives of each side and the slander is off the charts. For what? We already have border security, that isn't changing. We already have a barrier, that fundamental fact isn't changing. We already have an immigration policy, that isn't changing.

Let me give you an example of what I heard today (though not on this forum thankfully). Don Trump Jr. used a zoo as an example that walls work in a tweet. I thought that was a valid response to the idea that walls are ineffective. They will certainly limit and stop some of the traffic. No one is suggesting they'll stop tunnels, but tunnels are simple to find. No one is saying they'll stop airplanes or boats, but one would think that is obvious. No one is saying that they will stop cars and trucks, but focusing the border security on these points allows us to devote more manpower to ports and crossings. So Zeek has asked for proof that walls are effective -- Israel has used them effectively and there are many other obvious examples like Zoos where they work as well.

But that is not how this person saw the tweet. He described it as an insult to Mexico, describing everyone in the country, not just the illegal aliens trying to cross into the US, but everyone as being an animal. The amount of anger and vitriol is off the charts.