Why a Wall Won't Stop Immigration | Adam Ruins Everything

[Music] illegal immigration is out of control our borders are unprotected we need to build the wall i thank building a wall would actually increase the number of illegal immigrants in america what how could it possibly here i'll show you just building the wall would be practically impossible this is where it would be oh no it would have to stretch over 2 000 miles of rough terrain cutting through mountains rivers villages and even people's homes mexico and all that destruction is monstrously expensive just building the wall would cost between 15 and 25 billion dollars it would easily be one of the single most expensive pieces of infrastructure in american history costing as much as 20 hoover dams or nasa's entire annual budget not to mention the astronomical cost of staffing and maintaining the wall which taxpayers like you and your children will be stuck paying forever i paid for the wall my father's father paid for the wall and one day you will pay for the wall because this is wall world even just faking the wall for our show was prohibitively expensive oh looks like our cgi budget ran out oh okay yes it may be expensive but that doesn't change the fact that once we build it it will work not like you think increasing security at the border will never stop illegal immigration why not no one's getting past me yes they are because it's estimated that between 27 and 40 of all undocumented immigrants in america came here on planes i forgot about planes these immigrants didn't sneak over the border they came here legally through passport control then just overstayed their visas and guess what a border wall is not going to stop them because reminder planes can fly over walls you fools you forgot about planes we always forget about planes even by your estimate of visa overstays the wall would still stop about half of america's 11 million illegal immigrants no it wouldn't because of a little something called circular flow here i'll show you for decades immigration to the u.s was a circular flow people would come work for a bit and then after they were done go home to their families meet douglas massey thanks adam arms are getting pretty tired waiting for my cue he's a professor at princeton and a pioneering researcher on this topic when the reagan bush and clinton administrations drastically increase border enforcement in response to public opinion they stop that circular flow not by keeping people out but by keeping people in as it got harder and harder to go back and forth people crossing the border decided they were much better off just staying in the u.s in mexico if i go back to mexico now he won't let me back in the u.s i guess i'll just stay here in tucson ironically this increase in border enforcement caused the number of undocumented immigrants living in the united states to skyrocket by 248 percent it's counter-intuitive but building a wall wouldn't stop people from coming in it would actually stop them from going back in fact the whole idea of building a border wall is misguided the mexican economy is doing quite well right now and population growth has slowed way down so there's not much pressure to immigrate the number of illegal border crossings is actually at an all-time low if you're a professor then why are you in the desert i'm not i'm a mirage look we already have what has to be the most militarized border between any two nations of peace so the real issue of immigration isn't the people coming in the fact is they're already here nearly one out of every 30 people in america is an unauthorized immigrant [Music] the only thing a wall stops is a discussion of actual solutions oh my god adam you're right the wall isn't the answer oh good i'm so glad i could help millions of people are already here we need to deport them yes deportation is the answer no no no fun [Music] hey guys adam here if you like that be sure to watch new episodes of adam ruins everything every tuesday at 10 on true tv

Channel: CollegeHumor

Views: 9,062,919

Rating: 4.5816627 out of 5

Keywords: Collegehumor, CH originals, comedy, sketch comedy, internet, humor, funny, sketch, immigration, political issues, borders, adam ruins everything, adam ruins everything wall, adam ruins the wall, adam conover, adam conover wall, adam ruins immigration, adam ruins everything immigration, adam ruins everything mexico

Id: K_P9PR5ckFk

Length: 5min 42sec (342 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 28 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

That wasn't at all what I expected, and now I can't wait for Alfonzo to explain even more to me.

E: Watching some more of these, I gotta say I'm impressed. They're well sourced, include experts in the talked about field, and really entertaining.

[u/milehighmoos3]

anyone know where i can get links to his data?

[u/inuit7]

You can't ruin something that's already ruined! This is like saying that suicide was ruined when Kurt Cobain killed himself. No one thought it was a good idea anyway.

[u/roastbeeftacohat]

don't bother googling Alfonse explains it all; you get a scene from a tellanovella.

someone prove me wrong please.