For 35 days, the United States government remained shut down as Congress refused to give President Donald Trump $5.7 million in federal funds for his proposed border wall. While Trump and Congress recently came together to reopen the government temporarily, the U.S.-Mexico border wall is still arguably the biggest debate in our country today.

While Republicans argue that the wall will limit illegal immigration and overall continue to “Make America Great Again,” Trump’s proposal is more than just a structure along the country’s southern border. If the wall were to be built, it would function as a monument as to what we have become as a country.

Trump has stated his distaste for Latino-Americans multiple times, with most of his focus being towards Mexicans. In 2015, Trump tweeted, “The border is wide open for cartels and terrorists. Secure our border now. Build a massive wall & deduct the costs for Mexican foreign aid!”

Later that year, when Trump announced his candidacy for president, he said, “When Mexico sends its people, they are not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”

Clearly, Trump feels that Mexicans are not good people. With Trump being so open with this opinion, his followers are likely to hold the same idea. But the statistics show that the Mexican people Trump despises are not America’s biggest worry when it comes to crime.

According to the Cato Institute, a public policy research organization, 409,708 natives of Texas were convicted of crimes in 2015. Comparatively, 17,785 legal immigrants were convicted while just 15,803 illegal immigrants faced charges. In March of 2018, a study published by Michael T. Light, an associate professor of sociology at Purdue University and Ty Miller, an associate professor of sociology and criminology at Winthrop, stated that between 1990 and 2014, states with larger populations of illegal immigrants tended to have less crime than those with lower populations of illegal immigrants.

Of Light and Miller’s findings, The Washington Posts’ Christopher Ingraham wrote that “they concluded that not only does illegal immigration not increase crime, but it may actually contribute to the drop in overall crime rates observed in the United States in recent decades.”

Despite Trump’s bold claims that Mexico is sending nothing but criminals, reports show that immigrants commit less crime than that of people born and raised in America. Trump’s claims are unsubstantiated and are made out of hate rather than fact. Trump has given his followers a reason to hate Mexico and a reason to support the wall.

However, wall or no wall, immigrants are still entering America. Not only are they just entering, but they are contributing to the country’s workforce. According to the Pew Research Center, 66 percent of unauthorized immigrants had been in the U.S. for more than a decade in 2016. In total, about 7.8 million unauthorized immigrants were in the country’s workforce. Clearly, if immigrants are trying to get into the country, they want a better life for themselves or their families. They want to work and would, therefore, be repaying our country.

According to CBS News, construction was the most likely occupation for immigrants in 2015. Around 9 percent of foreign-born workers held a job in the field. Some immigrants come to this country with nothing but the clothes on their back and a dream. Trump’s wall takes that dream away from them just because they weren’t born American. If Trump or any American is worried about an immigrant taking their job, then perhaps they should consider working harder.

America has tried to be the world’s superhero throughout history. We went to places like Vietnam and Iraq in an attempt to help solve a problem we weren’t originally involved in. But now when all immigrants want is a better life, America can’t be that superhero?

If the wall is built, it might discourage some immigrants from trying to enter the country. However, more than anything else, it shows how Trump’s speech has helped turn America into a more racist and unapologetic country for all.