Immigration – Do We Need a Wall?

When I was a boy growing up in New Mexico, our family would drive to Juarez, Mexico every two weeks to buy a number of things for the family which were cheaper than in Las Cruces. Part of the highway followed the river, the Rio Grande. On the left side, the U.S. side, of the valley were modern homes with lighted streets; on the right side, the Mexican side, were small adobe houses, many of them shacks, with unpaved streets, some of which led down to the river. The Mexican people were going up and down the brown, barren hills to bathe and wash their clothes in the muddy, shallow river below.
There was no fence, there was nothing keeping them from going to the American side instead of returning home. As a consequence, millions of them were drawn to the lights of our side of the river. Can we blame them? There was no one there asking them for their papers. Recently, I was chatting with one of these Mexicans, who told me, “It takes me a week to earn in Mexico what I can earn in a day in the U.S.”
Can one blame them for coming where a better life is right before their eyes? I know the argument: Let them come legally. But when we are talking about people, some of whom have so little, whose clothes and shoes may not be presentable, and whose understanding of the fine points of life may be meager, it may resemble asking the birds not to fly from one country to another.
In the Sept. 29, 2016, issue of the New York  Times, Thomas Edsall wrote a  synopsis  article of a 509-page National Academy of Science report entitled, The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration, which helped me think through the arguments, pro and con, regarding Mexican and Central American immigration to our country:  
Do these immigrants cost the American taxpayers money?: A primary argument against this immigration is that it costs us a lot more than we get back. The report states that for the period 2011–2013, the first generation of immigrants cost us $57 billion, while the second and third generation created a benefit of $254 billion. 
Do these immigrants help keep our economy vital?: “Immigration is integral to the nation’s economic growth. The inflow of labor supply has helped the United States avoid the problems facing other economies that have stagnated.
“The views of Pia Orrenius, vice president and senior economist at the Dallas Federal Reserve, reveal the complications of the politics of immigration. Orrenius served on the National Academy of Sciences panel that produced the report and she makes the case that the ‘Benefits of Immigration Outweigh the Costs:’
“Immigration fuels the economy. When immigrants enter the labor force, they increase the productive capacity of the economy and raise GDP (Gross Domestic Product). In addition, she continued, ‘immigrants grease the wheels of the labor market by flowing into industries and areas where there is a relative need for workers — where bottlenecks or shortages might otherwise damp growth.’” 
Do immigrants sending money out of the country hurt our economy?: The Academy cites studies which conclude, there are “very small adverse economic consequences (which results) from remittances.”
Allow me to add, a young nation is a vibrant nation. In 1970, the median age of our population was 28; today it is 38. Further, we are living longer. The situation is, the young people take care of the old people; if there are increasingly more older people and fewer young people, we are working ourselves into a problem. By taking care of them, I don’t mean just physically doing so; it takes a lot of young people paying into the Social Security system so the older ones can draw money out. We must stay young for this system to continue to function.
Does this mean that we should continue to let the Mexicans come illegally over the border? No, but we need to find a way to welcome them, for our own good, if not also for theirs. This situation could be a whole lot worse. The Mexicans carry our same belief systems, which facilitates their integration, as opposed to nationalities which differ  from mainstream America, and which tend to cluster to themselves, and even fight our culture.
Does this mean that we open our borders and let in criminals? Of course not; we need to closely manage this. Do they, under some system, become citizens? I feel that perpetuating a second-class population runs fundamentally counter to who we are. We are all the same in God’s eyes.
A Republican argument is, restrict their entry – they vote Democratic. My observation of the Mexicans is that they are hard-working. The information shows, by the second and third generation, they far more than carry their own weight. If the Republicans can’t appeal to such people as these, they need to examine their platform… and broaden it. 
Now, to the question of the hour: Do we need a wall or some kind of impediment? Maybe yes; maybe no. But whatever we do, we need a comprehensive address to this long-postponed issue.