For the moment, President-elect Trump appears determined to deliver on his promise to deport as many illegal immigrants as possible. But sooner or later, he will turn his attention to “the wall” he has long promised to build along our border with Mexico — segments of which were constructed during his first term in office (albeit without any pesos from Mexico). After all, Trump is a builder — not so much of coalitions, perhaps, but of things: golf courses, office towers, casinos, hotels. But not unlike Mikhail Gorbachev, who more than 37 years ago was exhorted by Ronald Reagan, standing at the Brandenburg Gate, to “tear down this wall,” Trump will eventually have to reckon with the reality that walls cannot stop the movement of masses of human beings.
To be sure, the Berlin Wall was built to keep East Germans from coming out of their country, whereas barriers along our border with Mexico are there to keep unauthorized individuals from coming into ours. And some walls are more effective than others. According to the Berlin Wall Foundation, from 1961 to 1989, 101 individuals died attempting to escape to the West. Another 5,000 were apprehended attempting to do so. Even so, approximately 5,000 individuals succeeded in escaping across the wall to freedom in the West.
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