Walls don't have a good record of success

Our president recommends extending the wall between Mexico and the U.S. to prevent undocumented foreign nationals, looking for a better life, from entering the country. This has been tried before. The most notable example is the "Great Wall of China."

Parts were originally constructed around northern cities to protect them from invading Mongol raiders.

This proved ineffective because of the gaps between walls. Eventually these walls were all joined together, forming a 3,000-mile wall that can be seen from space. The Chinese found that this still required continuous surveillance to prevent the raiders from building structures to scale the wall. I recommend a visit to the wall to get a feeling for its size and the work that must have been involved in its construction.

There is the mass migration from the poor nations in Africa to Europe. Even the Mediterranean Sea doesn't stop them as they crowd anything that floats to get to Europe in hopes for a better life.

And lastly, there was the Berlin Wall, which the Communists built to prevent East Berliners from defecting to the West, where conditions were much better.

This inspired the famous visit by President Ronald Reagan where he is quoted as saying, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" And as we know, the wall was taken down shortly thereafter.

I'm not suggesting open borders, but let's use a little reason in protecting our nation from a flood of immigrants, yet allowing reasonable number in. After all, we all are descendants of past immigrants.

Adelore Petrie

Arlington Heights