President Donald Trump’s Christmas message to the nation is that the government shutdown will continue until he gets his wall along the border with Mexico. Well, a wall or a fence, whatever Democrats want to call it.

Why is the wall so essential? According to Trump, it’s the only way to stop human traffickers and illegal drugs from coming into the country.

Unfortunately, the human traffickers are already here. There may be some percentage of young people from south of the border brought north to be sold for sex, but there are many more young girls and boys born and raised right here in the U.S. who wind up in that despicable trade.

Drugs, too, have a way of finding their way into the country through legal points of entry, smuggled through airports or automobile checkpoints, even mailed or sent via some kind of delivery service.

Just as the Wall will not stop all illegal immigration, like the people who come into the country on legal visas and just don’t leave when they are supposed to, the Wall won’t be a cure-all for the ills that Trump thinks it will be.