A wall won't work

Dear Editor

It’s important to investigate the facts concerning the wall Donald Trump wants to build along the Mexican border.

The northern third of Mexico was ceded to the United States after the Mexican War of 1846-1848. The Treaty of Guadelupe established the Rio Grande River as the southern border of Texas and Arizona. Part of the territory of New Mexico didn’t become a state until 1912. Its southern border was defined by the 1854 Gadsen Purchase.

The current modern border of Mexico became prone to disputes of Native Americans and Newcomers.

Mormons fled to Mexico to escape religious persecution for the practice of polygamy. Wilford Woodruff, a president of the Mormon Church, issued a manifesto against plural marriage in the late 1800s.

*Note: Some of Mitt Romney’s ancestors fled to Mexico because they were polygamists. George Romney, Mitt’s father, was born there. They left when the Mexican bandit, Pancho Villa, burned settlements. (The Romneys escaped to Idaho and worked in the potato fields.)

In 2017, Mexicans walk over the border to the U.S. to McAllen, Mission and Hidalgo, Texas, to work and even hold festivals there before returning to Mexico.

“Coyotes” or human smugglers, take illegal migrants over the border.

Many undocumented individuals pay huge sums of money to enter the U.S. illegally. A large number come from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

Border patrol agents work day and night guarding the border on both sides. It resembles a game of cat and mouse.

When migrants were questioned about their opinion of President Trump, they said he was not their favorite person.

The thousands of border town residents say that no matter how strong or high the wall is, they will cross the border for jobs and opportunity.

Illegals from Central America are willing to take chances for economic reasons, and freedom. Trump’s $3 billion wall won’t stop them.

Helen Ruth Arnold,

Trenton, Neb.