President Trump’s proposed wall at the U.S. southern border is a divisive issue dominated by extremists on both sides. Die-hard opponents scoff at a wall, claiming it would be ineffective at best (and racist and xenophobic at worst).  Gung-ho supporters contend a physical barrier is the answer to stopping the flow of illegal immigrants into America from Mexico. As is often the case, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Critics of a physical border – concrete barriers, fencing, walls, etc. – are correct in noting that a material obstacle in and of itself is not a cure-all for the ill of illegal immigration. Those who wish to get into the country, period, are often motivated and clever, if Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, is to be believed regarding his April 2017 testimony before Congress.

A wall “is not a panacea to illegal immigration and drug trafficking,” Judd added in his submitted written testimony. “Illegal immigrants and drug traffickers routinely go over, under, and through the existing fencing that we already have in place.”

Likewise, a wall would have no effect on the estimated 40 to 50 percent of people in the country illegally who arrived on a visa and simply didn’t return home.

In other words, the benefits of a border wall itself are limited.

That’s not to say a border wall is useless.

“But what I will advocate for is a border wall in strategic locations, which helps us secure the border…” Judd noted during his aforementioned testimony. “The building of barriers and large fences, a bipartisan effort, allowed agents in part to dictate where illegal crossings took place and doubled how effective I was able to be in apprehending illegal border crossers.”

The effectiveness of a wall would be enhanced by cameras, drones, sensors, towers and patrols – including the proper manpower for arresting those who penetrate the border and illicitly enter America.

This holistic approach to securing borders has been extraordinarily successful in other parts of the world. In Israel, for example, fencing has played a prominent role in cutting illegal immigration at the Israeli-Egyptian border by 99 percent and reducing terrorist attacks at the Israeli-West Bank border by 90 percent.

Borders have been part of the human condition since time immemorial, and that’s not likely to change any time soon. The U.S. government should ignore those demonizing or venerating a wall and adopt a comprehensive, realistic approach – including border fortifications – to substantially reduce the number of incoming illegal immigrants. Bona fide border control would make it possible to humanely deal with the nation’s sizable population of illegal immigrants. What would also help: Reforming a legal immigration system that is so complicated, time-consuming and rife with red tape that many foreigners decide to sneak into America or overstay their visas.