This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, February 7th, 2017.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The push to build a wall separating the United States from Mexico will sour relations

between the two, but it won't stop a trade in

immigration. It will include dividing communities that exist on both sides.

Dan Griswold, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, discusses the

costs and benefits.

Donald Trump has long said he would like to build a wall. It is the signature

element of his presidential campaign in 2016.

Seems so long ago now, doesn't it?

And Mexico is the number three trading partner of the United States.

We have, you know, billions, tens of billions of dollars that go through individual

ports in the border between Mexico and the United States?

And what is the impact that you see of constructing,

or I should say continuing construction, finishing construction of a wall between the US and Mexico.

President Trump took the first concrete step.

He signed an executive order to start building the wall and he has that

authority given to him by Congress. It's going to be a colossal waste of taxpayer

dollars and we're going to have to pay for it up front, of course.

And I think we'll pay for it eventually in lots of different ways.

Maybe one of the least costs is going to be the 15 to 25 billion dollars it would cost to build an actual wall, the 1900 miles of the border,

and it's completely unnecessary.

...