Michael Kasper

AP Language & Comp

Mrs.Dougherty

2.18.19

The Barricade Blockade

The border wall; a political promise made by none other than 2016 presidential

candidate Donald Trump. Recently though, it has become the focal point of a government

shutdown; the longest one our country has experienced since Bill Clinton’s in 1995. During

said shutdown, Trump hinted to the nation that, if he could not get his way, he’d declare a

state of emergency to fund his dying promise. On the 15th, the worst nightmare of both sides

of the political spectrum came to fruition; he declared a national emergency to fund and

construct his wall; a culmination of shattered hopes, dreams and promises, fulfilled or not.

This, however, is not the end of the discussion, as the absolute nature of the “emergency”

may have one think; merely three days later, a coalition of states (Colorado, Connecticut,

Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey,

New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Virginia) are suing Trump and his departments of

Defence, Treasury, and Interior and Homeland Security for the misuse of presidential

powers to further his political agenda; both Republicans and Democrats, while divided, can

agree that this sets a dangerous precedent for later presidents, who could potentially

consolidate and abuse the power further. Such an abuse is comparable to the ruling of a

despot; is that what this country wants? It is said that if one looks to the past, the future is
predictable; it should be said though that this is a point that we shouldn’t regress toward.

And consider the controversy that the wall and it’s supporters have already caused; the

humans rights violations seem to be of no concern to Trump and his GOP, as he allows for

the creation of internment camps in which immigrants are detained, and eventually shipped

back from whence they came (usually Mexico; you don’t see Canadians flocking to the U.S.

for many reasons). Such behaviours mimic Executive Order 9066, an order issued by

president Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942 to detain Japanese, Italian, and German Americans

during WWII; but the similarities end there. The camps employ several “zero-tolerance”

policies enacted by Trump; including one which forcibly separates children from their

parents. That speaks for itself; no matter how many jobs can be freed from their grasp, or

how much further above the poverty line we get, Trump and his following disregard

humanity for capitalistic tendency, and remain ignorant to the changing world around them,

when the solution should be as simple as providing refuge to them from the unjust nature of

the mexican government.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/coalition-of-states-sues-trump-

over-national-emergency-to-build-border-wall/2019/02/18/9da8019c-33a8-11e9-854a-

7a14d7fec96a_story.html?utm_term=.c2503a42fcfe