Building wall may trigger broad immigration policy overhaul

Washington

JUST because Donald Trump isn't qualified to be president - and just because much of his agenda is hateful and undesirable - doesn't mean that everything he says is automatically wrong. Some of his ideas deserve consideration and enactment. One of these is building a wall across America's southern border with Mexico.

It has been ridiculed by opponents as an unneeded monstrosity and a colossal waste of money. The theory of the wall is that it keeps out low-wage workers and, thereby, raises the wages of US workers, including earlier Hispanic arrivals. They are most vulnerable to more Hispanic workers, because their skills generally overlap.

Just what a wall would cost is unknown. Guesses vary. Mr Trump has said US$8 billion. A detailed report by AllianceBernstein, a research firm, estimated between US$15 billion and US$25 billion. These sums seem (and are) large, but within a …