Vaquero Voice - The Rider Newspaper

“I think what [President] Donald Trump is doing is very stupid. He already caused the government shutdown, which led to a lot of families not being able to pay their bills due to, like, lack of payment or no payment at all. Like, my best friend’s dad who works for the Border Patrol, he wasn’t able to pay for his bills, so he had to take out a lot of loans just to stay in his home and just to do what regular people are doing, and Donald Trump really doesn’t care about that. He cares about the wall, which we don’t need. To me … it’s super unnecessary and with the wall, like, a lot of animals won’t be able to, like, to migrate, such as the butterflies and all that stuff, and we need that.”

“I can understand, but I believe using national emergency kind of breaks the checks and balances of power. [President Donald Trump] should find a different way to enforce it, but he shouldn’t be using national security just to build the wall. He should do it a different way if he feels he has to enforce it. A wall won’t guarantee people from passing, so he must find a different way to allocate that money. Maybe more border guards or using drones. But, a wall will only buy you time. … If he wants to enforce it, a wall won’t work.”

“I don’t think we need a border wall. I think we just need more national security and that’s all I really think. We, kind of, have a wall now and people are still crossing over, so I don’t see the whole point. People are still going to try and come over. I feel like we just need more emphasis on national security.”

“I think it’s ridiculous and [President Donald Trump is] making too much of a big deal when [there’s] a lot of pressing matters that are actually happening inside this country that he needs to address. Personally, the Flint, Michigan, water system; they’ve been rusted and its polluted water for god knows how long. … I’d rather use that [money]. I’d rather use it for teachers’ funding, ’cause we’ve had strikes all over the place. It’s just like I said, it’s unnecessary he’s just using this to get his wall. It’s just another campaign promise ’cause he wants to get elected again, which I hope he doesn’t. … I believe he is unqualified to begin with. He’s just overusing his power ’cause it is not a national emergency, it is not. I understand that you are afraid of people coming into this country, but it’s been happening forever and I understand there is fear of it, and I understand it, you know, with drug trafficking, human trafficking, but we already have that stuff or we already have what we need to stop that or at least bring it down. I would suggest to use that money to hire more staff or just better, we have drones, we have thermal cameras, we’re better equipped and the wall is just medieval. It’s not going to work. They’re going to find a way over.”