“Build That Wall, Build That Wall!” is a common mantra many Trump supporters shout during Trump’s rallies.

“I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe, me,” Trump said, even claiming that he, Trump, would have Mexico pay for the wall built on the southern border of the United States.

Part of Trump’s popularity among his supporters is this idea of building a massive wall that will separate Mexico from the United States.

For centuries, empires have built walls to protect small kingdoms from outside aggressors.

These “walls”, were built for defensive purposes to protect the main city of the empire from outside aggression such as other empires.

In Istanbul, Turkey the walls that once surrounded the magnificent Byzantine empire that existed more than a millennium since the founding of the city of Constantinople in 330, which is now renamed as Istanbul, to its fall in 1453. In which, the Ottoman Empire, took over and renamed the city to Istanbul, which continues to hold the same name.

The wall built under the Byzantine empire continued until the Ottoman Empire’s reign and they continue to stand today, but not as a border wall but as ruins. In other words, as historical markers.

The thing is, it was only the major city and palaces that would remain behind the walls not the entirety of the empire itself.

Both empires, the Byzantine and the Ottoman empires, were multi-ethnic, multi-language, and culturally diverse.

These empires thrived on constant cross-cultural interactions between different peoples and empires. They left their doors open for this constant interaction. Allowing for constant migration and economic interactions to take place.

The constant flow of people allowed for businesses to flourish, for economic development, and for technological advancements and influences to take place under the empires.

And, for the walls that surrounded the city of Istanbul that worked because it was a small territorial area that they had to protect.

As I previously stated, for many centuries empires have built walls surrounding important cities from outside military attack not from migration and Immigration, and these empires lasted for more than 244 years, that is the number of years that the United States has existed.

Today, Trump and some of his supporters idea of building a wall is to “secure” the border and to “stop” illegal immigration from the southern part of the United States. Insinuating that most illegal immigrants come through the Mexican border.

According to Jorge Ramos, an award-winning journalist stated that 40% of illegal immigration come through the air. While the Migration Policy Institute states that, “In 2015, 1.38 million foreign-born individuals moved to the United States, a 2 percent increase from 1.36 million in 2014. India was the leading country of origin for recent immigrants, with 179,800 arriving in 2015, followed by 143,200 from China, 139,400 from Mexico, 47,500 from the Philippines, and 46,800 from Canada. In 2013, India and China overtook Mexico as the top origin countries for recent arrivals.”

So, the question remains why Trump disregards these facts and what is the true sentiments Trump himself feels with regards to Mexicans.

The landmass connecting North Mexico and the southern United States extends about 2,000 miles from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. For Trump and some of his spokespersons, the Trump administration would only have to build 1,000 miles of border walls. The reason for this is because they have natural barriers such as mountains and rivers.

The cost of a 1,000-mile border wall has gone up from $4 billion to $20 billion dollars. As Trump has stated on many occasions, it will not be the United States that would pay for the wall but Mexico. However, the idea of "forcing" another country to pay for something absurd as a wall is that it more than likely will not happen. Mexico’s President, Pena Nieto and former Mexican president, Vicente Fox, have clearly stated that they will not help or pay for the wall.

In addition to the cost of building the wall, the next question is how many men and women are we going to have "manning" the 1,000 miles wall 24/7.

Thwarting immigration whether it is illegal or legal, will in the short and long run damage our economy and run prices up for many American goods, this means that much of the cheap produce and products we get at our grocery and local stores will go up along with many other goods we buy.

Released in 2016, The Economic and Fiscal Consequence of Immigration by the National Academy of Science (NAS) stated that, “In short, the prospects for long-run economic growth in the United States would be considerably dimmed without the contributions of high-skilled immigrants.”

For many businessmen such as the Koch brothers and others, immigration is key to economic prosperity.

Whether Trump’s wall is built or not, one thing is for sure, Trump will not fall under great men of the 21st-century, but would be categorized as the face of white racism in the 21st-century America.