The Purpose of Walls

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/.