One of the objections opponents of a border wall with Mexico raise against candidate Trump's promise to erect such a wall is that a wall wouldn't work to keep illegal aliens out. A wall would be enormously expensive to build and maintain, the argument goes, and it wouldn't be effective in preventing people from coming into the country illegally in any case.
Well, I don't know if a wall along the southern border would work or not, but the general claim that walls don't work is nonsense. Perhaps the best refutation of the claim is found in Israel which has a security fence that runs for 760 kilometers (about 456 miles) along the West Bank. Most of the fence was constructed between 2002 and 2009 and during that span terror attacks inside Israel declined over 90 percent and related deaths plunged over 98 percent.
The Israeli barrier has had some very unfortunate consequences for people who found themselves walled off from their orchards and fields, but it has certainly been a success in protecting the Israeli people from the intrusions of those who wish to do them harm.
Perhaps the reason open borders proponents raise the "walls don't work" objection to a border wall with Mexico is not because they don't believe it would work, but because they believe it will.
