By Rick Manning

The untimely death of Jakelin Caal Maquin at the border is a tragedy — a preventable tragedy. The fact is that little girl would be alive today if there had been a wall to deter illegal immigration.

The migrant caravan is dangerous. Any parents who have been lied to by political and economic predators that the journey north is safe and easy need to realize that it is not, and often ends with deadly results.

Those who choose to avoid U.S. intake stations will find themselves traversing some of the world’s harshest terrain on both sides of the border.

A border wall across these areas would deter people from attempting this treacherous journey with the inevitable saving of lives, perhaps even little Jakelin’s. Unfortunately, she will now be a statistic rather than a cautionary tale.

What we do know is that illegal entrees into our country dramatically decline with wall completion.

In San Diego, CA, a wall was built in 1992, and Illegal traffic dropped 92 percent since it was completed. In El Paso, TX, a wall was built in 1993 and illegal traffic dropped 72 percent in one year and 95 percent overall. In Tucson, Arizona, illegal traffic dropped 90 percent since the wall was built in 2000, and in Yuma, Arizona illegal traffic dropped 95 percent after a wall was built.

Building the wall saves lives as it deters the kind of caravans we are seeing today, fueled by shady promoters who prey on human suffering in an attempt to score political points.

It is not compassion telling migrants to charge the border with children to be used as golden tickets into the U.S., it’s exploitation.

It is not compassion to urge those with little economically to lose to risk the lives of their children in an attempt to game the U.S. laws, when it is those children who are most vulnerable to rape, disease and death on the arduous journey.

And it is not compassion to tell people with no sense of the dangers ahead, that the journey will be easy and guaranteed.

A border wall ends this false illusion and it is reasonable to believe that little Jakelin’s father would never have put her at risk had a full wall been in place. The wall would have saved this little girl’s life.

Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.