GOP 2016 Trump Border Wall

This Sept. 15, 2015, photo, shows a border fence on a farmer's property in Mission, Texas. The staggered fence or "wall," costing $6.5 million per mile, runs along about 100 miles of Texas' 1,254-mile border with Mexico. Can Donald Trump really make good on his promise to build a wall along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border to prevent illegal migration? What's more, can he make Mexico pay for it? (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

President Trump is signing an executive order to begin construction of his long-promised Mexico-U.S. border wall. The president claims it would cost between $8 and $12 billion, but analysts have projected costs could rise to $25 billion. Congress will need to approve any new funding to build the wall, but should they approve it? Remember, it was Trump who initially promised Mexico would pay for the wall. Now taxpayers are on the hook. What do you think?

PERSPECTIVES

The border wall was Trump's signature campaign promise, and his supporters cite illegal immigration, national security and job creation as key reasons why the wall will be worth the cost.

Furthermore, Trump claims Mexico will pay for the wall through a combination of factors -- including increased fees and taxes to cross the southwest border and withholding money from wire transfers by Mexican nationals in the U.S.

But since his election, the president has suggested the United States would initially pay for a border wall and then be reimbursed at a later date, tweeting last month that America "will be paid back by Mexico later!"

Others think once American taxpayers are presented with the facts, they will not want tax dollars going towards a wall. It would be one of the largest infrastructure expenditures in U.S. history, and that estimate does not include the future costs of wall maintenance and security. "Build that wall!" made for a great chant during the campaign, but the logistics will cause Congress to balk at approving funding.

MORE: Here's Why Donald Trump's Wall Will Never, Ever Work

Many Americans are fed up with how porous our southern border is. With 5.6 million Mexican immigrants in the U.S. illegally, supporters want a wall to send a clear statement to Mexico and the world that the United States will not be taken advantage of. It's our border, why should we not do all we can to secure it?

A structural engineer broke down all the reasons why Trump's wall is logistically implausible and waste of taxpayer money:

Human beings have built a 2,000-mile-long frontier wall exactly one time. Once. And it was accomplished only through a centuries-long building campaign that necessitated the forced labor of millions of Chinese peasants ... The leap in complexity between "building a wall" and "building a 2,000-mile-long continuous border wall in the desert" is about equal to the gap between "killing a guy" and "waging a protracted land war."

Trump and his supporters point to Israel's wall as an example of how border walls can increase security and send a strong message to U.S. enemies. Isn't national security worth any price?

Critics say the wall wouldn't just be prohibitively expensive--it wouldn't work to solve the problems Trump claims it would.

Trump's proposed border wall is limited at best, impractical at worst, and impressively expensive https://t.co/XQ3sm13nfE — WIRED (@WIRED) January 25, 2017

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