When I woke up today and saw that the GoFundMe for the border wall had reached 17 million dollars (and will unfortunately probably raise even more by the time this article is published), I felt a mixture of disgust and sadness. It is no surprise to anyone that there are many racist people in the United States, but to see them come together and donate money for a useless wall that will essentially be a monument to this country's racism and xenophobia, is the cherry on top.
Brian Kolfage, the creator of the GoFundMe, decided that it was his duty to make sure that the wall was funded since there was pushback against Trump's request for $5 billion to build the wall. It is completely insane to me that the donors of the GoFundMe believe that their money is going to be put to better use creating a wall between us and Mexico then, for example, donating to give Flint, Michigan clean water. That is a cause that will actually help thousands of people, yet here we have 17 million dollars being completely wasted on a wall of hatred.
Kolfage claims that the wall is necessary because "Too many Americans have been murdered by illegal aliens and too many illegals are taking advantage of the United States taxpayers with no means of ever contributing to our society."
First things first, do not ever call a human being an "illegal." It is dehumanizing. They should be referred to as undocumented immigrants.
Second of all, it is ignorant to say that too many Americans have been murdered by undocumented immigrants when native-born Americans are more likely to be murderers than undocumented immigrants, according to a study done by the Cato Institute in February 2018. Their study looked at the conviction rates by immigration status in Texas because it is the state with the second-largest population of foreigners. The native-born residents were not only more likely to be murderers, but they were also more likely to commit crimes in general than their immigrant counterparts, both undocumented and documented.
https://www.businessinsider.com/undocumented-aliens-violent-crime-murder-statistics-data-2018-8
And in case you think this is the only study with these findings, there are several others that came to the conclusion that undocumented immigration does not increase violent crime.
A study done by the Journal of Ethnicity in December 2016 found that from 1980 through 2016 there was a 118% increase in the United States' immigrant population, yet there was a 36% decrease in violent crime during this time.
https://www.businessinsider.com/undocumented-alien...
Also, a Criminology journal published in March 2018 found that from 1990 through 2014, "the more a population was made up of unauthorized immigrants, the lower the violent crime rate seemed to be."
And believe it or not, yes I am talking to all of you that support the wall, undocumented immigrants pay much more in taxes than they receive in government services and they also help our economy thrive. Ultimately, it does not matter what kind of "value" an undocumented immigrant would bring to our society because it should be enough that they are a human being trying to start a new life for themselves.
As the daughter of immigrants, it boils my blood to see undocumented immigrants vilified. Mexican immigrants and immigrants from Central and South America are some of the most selfless, kindest, and hardworking people in this country, and it is shameful to see just how many Americans reject them simply for being people of color.
