Recently, the United State’s government entered into a partial shutdown as President Donald Trump fought for a budget that included $5.7 billion to build a wall across the southern border. Trump entered into a stalemate with House Democrats opposed to the wall, causing a lot of drama for thousands of federal employees were not paid, some despite being required to come in anyway. The shutdown started on December 22, 2018, and lasted 35 days, which is the longest in U.S. history.

Trump is only trying to feed his ginormous ego by building his wall. He knew during his campaign that his promises of concrete walls that the American people would not have to pay for were ridiculous. Now, he’s trying to fight for this wall only to seem as though he at least tried to fulfill the promises he made during the campaign to try to get elected. He is not helping the American people; he is hurting them.

Hundreds of thousands of American workers went without pay for weeks and only got the money they earned after almost a month in shutdown. TSA agents called in sick or quit because they were going without pay and had to find a job that would pay them now. Not having TSA  at airports is more compromising to our safety and is more dangerous for border security than not having a wall.

And building the wall will not solve immigration issues. The majority of illegal immigrants in America are those who overstayed their visas, not those who were caught sneaking over the border. In 2017, 700,000 US visitors overstayed their visas while only 300,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended at the border.

In a series of Tweets the president described the wall as “the steel barrier”. He claimed that “experts at Border Patrol prefer a wall that is see-through (thereby making it possible to see what is happening on both sides).” No matter what name it is given, it is not the answer.

If Trump actually wanted to stop illegal immigration then he would spend those $5 billion on tracking down illegal immigrants who overstayed their visa and either get their visas renewed, helping them get citizenship, or detaining and deporting them as a last resort.

The country narrowly avoided another shutdown recently when President Trump finally agreed to sign a budget bill. The agreement gives Trump $1.375 billion for a border “barrier”, substantially less than the $5 billion he’s been campaigning. Trump continues to fight for emergency funding to get more money for a wall, but states are suing him over the move because it would take away from money from defense, among other things.