By: Dale Weckbacher
Nehemiah 1:3-4
They said to me,
“Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah.
They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn
down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.”
4 When
I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and
prayed to the God of heaven.
(NLT)
On June 16, 2015, businessman Donald Trump announced his
candidacy for President of the United States with his main promise being
increasing border security by building a wall along the southern border of the
United States. (1) As expected, it did not take long for
naysayers to cite reasons why the wall would not work. According to an opinion piece by Robert Reich
appearing in Newsweek, Trump’s wall will not work because,
1)
The U.S.-Mexican border is already
well-defended, and a wall won’t improve the defenses. (2) Mr. Reich’s reasons are that we already spend
$3.7 billion per year for border patrol agents along with $3.2 billion on
inspectors at ports of entry. However, despite
these expenditures, the statistics tell us that the U.S. citizen is not
receiving their money’s worth. (3) As a successful businessman, Donald Trump no
doubt looked at the failure to secure the border despite spending billions and
realized a wall was a better strategy.
2)
The cost of Trump’s wall would be a whopping $25
billion on top of this. (2) The fallacy of Mr. Reich’s reasoning here is
that with a wall in place along the border, fewer border patrol agents and
inspectors would be necessary. In
addition, a 2006 law passed with the help of Senators Barack Obama, Joe Biden,
and Hillary Clinton has already allocated funding for construction of the
wall. (4) Therefore, Donald Trump can with the simple
stroke of a pen order construction of the border wall to begin, something he
did on January 25, 2017. (5)
3)
There is no way Mexico will pay for it. (2) Whether Mexico pays for the wall or not, the
primary constitutional duty of the Federal Government is the protection of its
citizens from enemies foreign and domestic.
The massive influx of illegal immigrants across the southern border
represents an invasion, (3)
an invasion that a wall will decrease.
Therefore, we must build the wall.
4)
There’s no reason for the wall anyway, because
undocumented migration from Mexico has sharply declined. (2) Mr. Reich cites statistics showing a decline
in illegal border crossings since 2008.
However, Mr. Reich fails to consider evidence obtained by the House
Judiciary Committee showing the Obama Administration “cooking the books” to
show larger numbers of deportations. (6) With the books cooked showing more
deportations, a decrease in illegal immigrants would be expected but with the
“books being cooked,” the numbers cannot be trusted.
5)
The decline isn’t because of rising border
enforcement but because Mexico is producing fewer young people. (2) Once again, Mr. Reich’s numbers cannot be
trusted because it only accounts for children born in Mexico and fails to
consider the number of children born in the United States to illegal immigrants
who are granted U.S. citizenship at birth, the so-called anchor babies. In addition, these children are not counted
as illegal immigrants.
6)
There’s little or no evidence undocumented
immigrants take jobs away from native-born Americans, anyway. (2) My first Job when I turned 16 was working at
a fast food restaurant for a whopping $1.95 per hour. I never intended for this Job to become a
career but went to work to afford my first car.
What this job did, however, is teach me the importance of showing up for
work and doing what the boss told me to do.
It also taught me how to budget my pay check so I could afford a
car. Unfortunately, however, we see few
teenagers working at these jobs today and are thus robbing our youth of their
first job helping them develop a good work ethic and money management
skills.
The book of Nehemiah in the Bible is the account of a man
called by God to rebuild the broken-down wall defending the ancient city of
Jerusalem. Walls were important for the
defense of ancient cities from enemies for unlike today, enemies could not
attack from the air. However, the
illegal immigrants flooding the southern border of the United States are not
coming in by air, but crossing on the ground.
There is therefore no reason that a wall along the southern border of
the U.S. will not provide protection. In
fact, modern Israel has a wall along the west bank (7) that has resulted in a decrease in terrorist attacks. (8)
The book of Nehemiah however also has a spiritual message
teaching us the need to have walls of protection around our hearts as
well. In Ephesians 6:13-17 the Apostle
Paul tells us to put on the full armor of God.
He is most likely observing the Roman guard watching him and equates
each piece of the guard’s armor with something spiritual. Except for the offensive weapon of the sword
of the Spirit, each implement of the armor is defensive.
These implements of armor can also be looked at as our
spiritual wall of protection protecting us from the attacks of the enemy,
Satan. John 10:10 tells us that the
thief, Satan, comes to kill, steal, and destroy but the second half of the
verse reminds that Jesus came to give us abundant life. Some interpret this to mean Jesus is
promising his followers they will be rich but when taken in context of the
entire message of the gospel, especially John 3:16, Jesus is referring to an
abundant eternal life with Him.
In addition, just as the proposed wall along the southern
border of the United States will have a gate for people to enter legally, there
is a door for anyone to enter into an abundant eternal life with Jesus. That door is Jesus Christ (John 14:6) and the
only documentation required is to believe.
If you would like to enter into an abundant eternal life with Jesus
Christ, please pray with me now,
Dear Lord Jesus, I know I have sinned (Romans 3:23) and know
that the penalty for my sin is death (Romans 6:23). I ask you to forgive me of my sin and cleanse
me as you promise in your Word (1 John 1:9).
I believe you died, was buried, and resurrected from the dead and now
declare you Lord of my life.
Now, do not neglect the wall of protection Jesus has
provided around your soul as the Israelites did in the time of Nehemiah but
instead maintain your solid wall of defense by finding a Church teaching the
Bible, become part of a small group Bible study, and begin regularly studying
the Bible yourself.
May God bless everyone reading this.
1. Tims Staff. Here's Donald Trump's
Presidential Announcement Speech. time.com. [Online] Time, June 16,
2015. [Cited: April 3, 2017.]
http://time.com/3923128/donald-trump-announcement-speech/.
2. Reich, Robert.
ROBERT REICH: SIX REASONS TRUMP’S MEXICO WALL IS A DUMB IDEA. www.newsweek.com.
[Online] Newsweek, January 17, 2017. [Cited: April 3, 2017.]
http://www.newsweek.com/robert-reich-six-reasons-trumps-mexico-wall-dumb-idea-543247.
3. Jens Manuel
Krogstad, Jeffrey S. Passel, and D'vera Cohn. 5 Facts About Illegal
Immigration in the U.S. www.pewresearch.org. [Online] Pew Research
Center, November 3, 2016. [Cited: April 3, 2017.]
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/03/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/.
4. Stoltzfoos,
Rachel. Top Democrats Voted For The Border Wall Trump Is Building. dailycaller.com.
[Online] The Daily Caller, January 25, 2017. [Cited: April 3, 2017.]
http://dailycaller.com/2017/01/25/top-democrats-voted-for-the-border-wall-trump-is-building/.
5. Fox News.
Trump orders construction of border wall, targets sanctuary cities. www.foxnews.com.
[Online] Fox News, January 25, 2017. [Cited: April 3, 2017.]
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/25/trump-orders-construction-border-wall-targets-sanctuary-cities.html.
6. May, Caroline.
New documents reveal Obama administration ‘cooking the books’ to achieve record
deportation numbers. dailycaller.com. [Online] The Daily Caller, August
24, 2012. [Cited: April 3, 2017.] http://dailycaller.com/2012/08/24/new-documents-reveal-obama-administration-cooking-the-books-to-achieve-record-deportation-numbers/.
7. Rosner, Shmuel.
What America can learn from Israel's West Bank security barrier. www.slate.com.
[Online] Slate. [Cited: April 3, 2017.]
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2006/06/fences.html.
8. Palti, Zohar.
Israel's Security Fence: Effective in Reducing Suicide Attacks from the
Northern West Bank. www.washingtoninstitute.org. [Online] The Washington
Institute, July 7, 2004. [Cited: April 3, 2017.]
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/israels-security-fence-effective-in-reducing-suicide-attacks-from-the-north.
9. immigrationcounters.com.
Immigration Counters. www.immigrationcounters.com. [Online] [Cited:
April 3, 2017.] http://www.immigrationcounters.com/.
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