Ian Spinks

English 1201

4 April 2019

Building A Wall.

Will building a wall save America? Will the costs of a wall outweigh

protection and create a more safe society? Wall protection versus tracking down

overstayed and illegal immigrants. President Trump promised he would draw a

hardline on illegal immigration and the solution is to increase the length of the pre-

existing wall near the Texas and Mexico border area. This solution has left

Republicans standing behind him and Democrats against him and a country

divided.

There are 93 international borders in the world and the Mexico–United

States border is the most frequently crossed with an estimated 350 million

documented travelers crossing annually. The o countries of Mexico and the United

States. The border extends the countries of Mexico and the United States from the

Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east through various terrains

ranging from urban populated areas to uninhabitable deserts.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton, authorized the installation of fences/walls

along the Mexican border to restrict drug trafficking and illegal immigrants from

entering the United States undetected. In 2006, The Secure Fence Act, signed into

law by President George W. Bush, authorized building an additional 700 miles of

fencing mostly near San Diego, California and El Paso, Texas. These areas had the

most concentrated numbers of illegal crossings and drug trafficking incidents. The

wall additions were finished by 2011 and the border fencing is now 2,000 miles

long and borders the states of California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. The

barrier is made up of chain link and steel fencing (varying in height between 18

and 26 feet), and barbed wire. Besides the fencing, there are thousands of "virtual

fence" sensors, cameras, and underground surveillance equipment used to dispatch

United States Border Patrol agents to suspected illegal immigrant crossings. The

U.S. Border Patrol also uses aircrafts, boats and drones to monitor the boundary

day and night.

In 2019, President Trump wants congress to approve the construction of an

additional 1,000 miles of border wall barriers. The graph below shows specific

political groups cost estimates from their own research regarding the wall

additions.
 According to The Government Accountability Office, “the cost to a build 1

mile of fencing near the Texas and Mexico border is between $2.8 million and $3.9

million, but this figure may be low considering the future costs of additional

sections of wall in rough terrain areas. This estimate is based on the 220 miles of

fence and doesn’t include other factors, such as topography, transportation logistics

in harder-to-reach areas, labor costs, land acquisition costs and surveillance

equipment.” The U.S. government would also have to maintain surveillance of the

wall areas and is estimated to be an additional cost of $750 million a year with a

personnel of 21,000 agents. So the issue is not just about building the wall, it is

also about the cost of maintaining the wall with effectiveness in keeping America

safe in the future is where a majority of the public is concerned.

In an article, “Hitting a Wall?” by Gary and Rich, “President Trump, during

his campaign and first few months in office, made his intentions clear regarding

the wall and remaking the U.S immigration policy. Among the most significant

policy moves in Trump’s first year was his executive action on “Border Security

and Immigration Enforcement Improvements,” issued within the first days of his

inauguration.” This was one of the main issues that is regarded to his election into

office.

The Trump administration has made construction of a 2,000-mile wall across

the length of the US-Mexico border a centerpiece of its executive orders on

immigration and its broader immigration enforcement strategy. Below are the wall

prototypes with associated costs that are being reviewed.

Trump's initial price tag is between $8 billion and $12 billion for a wall

covering half the length of the border is widely disputed. Trump wants $5.7 billion

in addition to the $1.7 billion already designated for homeland security - most of

which is for new and replacement barriers. US Customs and Border Protection

(CPB) says that, “on average, it costs approximately $6.5m per mile to construct a

new border wall or replace existing legacy fence.” From the graph above, none of

the prototypes are cheap.

“In 2016, it was estimated that there was 12 million immigrants from

Mexico living in the United States and and just under half of them (5.4 million)
were in the United States illegally,” according to Pew Research Center estimates.

Mexico is our country’s largest source of illegal immigrants, making up 26.6% of

all U.S. immigrants. From the graph below, in 2017, Trump's first year in office,

the illegal immigration it the lowest it has been since 1971. Trump just being in

office has already had a psychological and powerful effect against illegal

immigration.

There are benefits to building a wall that still haven’t been addressed in the

media very much, but are very important. A wall or barrier would reduce and

discourage illegal immigration, but also infiltration by drug cartels, gangs and

human trafficking. “Trump has claimed 90% of heroin comes across the southern

border and that a wall would help the fight against drugs. “Nationwide heroin

seizures reached 7,979 kg in 2017, with 39% seized at the US-Mexico border,”
according to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). While most of the heroin in

the U.S. does come from Mexico, the DEA says the majority of it is smuggled in

through legal ports of entry, hidden in privately-owned vehicles or transporter

lorries, mixed with other goods, but will be addressed by the increase in manned

security.” From the graph below, the most Heroin seizures were near the El Centro

and San Diego Cities.

Human-trafficking and deaths will decrease as well. Human trafficking is the

trade of humans, most commonly for the purpose of forced labour, sexual slavery,

or commercial sexual exploitation of mainly women and children. According to the

UNODC, (United Nations Office on Drug and Crime), “it is currently estimated

that from Mexico, human trafficking is 70 percent forced sexual exploitation and

18 percent forced labor. There at least 47 sex trafficking rings operating in Mexico

and the number of victims is more than 80,000 including 20,000 children.” With a

wall, human traffickers would be discouraged to attempt crossing the American

border with victims. The empty promise of a better life to lure their victims would

equally be known not to be true anymore. The number of deaths associated with

border crossing attempts would decrease as well with a complete wall separating

our countries.

Citizens in countries, like the United States and Britain, are uneasy about

what they perceive as falling economic fortunes, and outsiders who threaten a way

of life. Erecting paper or concrete walls to protect the national economy, jobs and

culture is a strategy that has strong appeal. Whether the wall is for a psychological

standpoint to show that illegal immigrants are not welcome, the physical version

would be even more effective.

Building a wall does not address the complexities of unauthorized migration,

or the economic concerns of America’s middle class. For instance, as many as half

of unauthorized immigrants in the United States are people who overstay their

visas, not border crossers. Barriers also result in more deaths because people try to

cross the border at the most inhospitable and unwalled places. The barriers in place

now have generated billions of dollars of federal expenditures for border security

and investment. There needs to be an emphasis on the immigrants in the United

States with overstayed/expired visas as well.

The wall has unforeseen extra benefits even if the wall isn’t as successful on

cutting illegal immigration. Depending on a full wall versus segments throughout

the U.S and Mexico border, it will create 21,000 long lasting jobs in security to

help stop illegal immigration, drug and human trafficking into America.

Canadians were the highest group of overstayers, according to DHS figures,

followed by Mexicans and Brazilians (it should be noted that the majority of

Canadians and Mexicans enter the US by land, and the DHS Overstay Report only

provides air and sea overstay rates). Although the number of overstayers overall

dropped to around 420,000 in May 2018 - it was still more than the number of

people arrested trying to enter illegally via the Mexico-US border.

Barriers can result in more deaths because people try to cross the border at

the most inhospitable and unwalled places. However, it could save lives by

discouraging people to even make the journey to cross illegally. The barriers in

place now have generated billions of dollars of federal expenditures for border

security and investment. But with more restrictions and guidelines to deal with the
complex situations of border crossers there would be more rules in place to help

ensure situations like these are even less likely to occur often.

Overall. the benefits of building or extending the wall outweigh the costs

associated with it. The U.S. government would have to pay to maintain the wall

yearly, which could cost as much as $750 million a year, according to an analysis

conducted by Politico, and would create 21,000 new jobs . Congress has so far

approved $1.7 billion in funding for 124 miles of new and replacement barrier

since Trump took office in 2017.

Even though the wall is very expensive and it has never been done before, it

is now the right time in history to complete. A wall is now required to decrease

illegal immigration, especially the amount associated with terrorism. The potential

to decrease drug trafficking could help eliminate the crippling effect of drug

addiction among Americans. The wall will also deter sex and labour traffickers

from entering the U.S. and hopefully inform and discourage potential victims of

human trafficking that there is no reason to illegally enter the U.S without proper

authorization. From my research, I can’t help to think where our economy would

be if the wall was extended when it was partially built in 1994. As well as how

many lives it might have saved on both sides of the border.

Works Cited:

Bailey Rodgers. “Trump Wall - All You Need to Know about US Border in

Seven Charts.” BBC News, BBC, 21 Jan. 2019, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-

canada-46824649

Drew, Kate. “Donald Trump's Controversial Border Wall Could Cost

Upwards of $15 Billion.” CNBC, CNBC, 26 Jan. 2017,

 Felbab-Brown, Vanda, and Vanda Felbab-Brown. “The Wall: The Real

Costs of a Barrier between the United States and Mexico.” Brookings.edu, The

Brookings Institution, 15 Sept. 2017,

Gary and Rich “Hitting a Wall? The Trump Administration Meets Immigration

Federalism.” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 25 May 2018,

https://academic.oup.com/publius/article/48/3/372/5004795.

Kerwin Donald and Warren Roberts “The 2,000 Mile Wall in Search of a

Purpose: Since 2007 Visa Overstays Have Outnumbered Undocumented Border

Crossers by a Half Million.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency,

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/233150241700500107

Smith .J “Why Trump's Wall with Mexico Is so Popular, and Why It Won't

Work > Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII) at USC > USC Dana

and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.”

https://dornsife.usc.edu/csii/davidcookmartinborderwall/