Transcending the Wall.
In 2006, a 700-mile fence, along certain stretches of land between the US and Mexico border, was an ill-conceived and impractical “solution” to a “problem” that it would have done little to solve. The Secure Fence Act of 2006 was passed by a Republican Congress and signed by President George W. Bush. Many prominent Democratic senators voted in favor of the act when it passed the senate by an 80 to 19 vote. USA Today has a great page devoted to showing in great detail the results of The Secure Fence Act of 2006. As you can see, about half of the southern border is wide open.
In 2019, the idea really hasn’t gotten any better.
The idea of a border wall may seem simple in principle and comforting to many people, but the reality is much more complex. Estimated anywhere from $8 billion to $70 billion, it is a concept that warrants a great deal of consideration if we expect our children’s children to foot the bill to construct, maintain, and staff it. Unfortunately, rather than consulting data, facts, and evidence, people are turning to opinion, fear, and anecdotes to provide supporting evidence of what a border wall would and wouldn’t accomplish (assuming the wall itself could be built).
The wall would be constructed along the US-Mexico border (duh!). A significant portion of the land along the border (about 600 miles) is in the middle of Texas — near no major cities, roads, or other access points. The more remote areas of the border like these pose a huge problem in terms of moving materials and equipment to the site to even begin construction. Costs associated with construction in these areas include building roads just to get there. Much of the border wall would need to run through mountains, rivers, towns, cities, and even people’s homes.
Let’s assume that none of that matters. Let’s assume that the physical wall location is a non-issue, ignoring geography, practicality, cost, and legality. Could it work? Could it do what it is intended to do?
To figure out if a border wall could “work”, we have to determine exactly what it is meant to do. That, in and of itself, is a more difficult question to answer than it first appears. The purpose of a border wall is pretty vaguely defined (similar to a war on terror, or a war on drugs, or turning your electric burner to medium-high heat). What exactly is the purpose of the border wall? Will it keep people in? Will it keep people out? Who? And how? Why? Many people say that its purpose is to end illegal immigration along the southern border once and for all — to seal up the border with concrete and armed guards. Many say that its purpose is to end the influx of “criminals, and rapists” and drugs and gangs that are apparently flooding into the country in droves (however, statistics quite strongly contradict the notion that illegal immigrants are more likely than native-born US citizens to commit violent crimes). There is just no evidence to support the claim that undocumented immigrants are more violent than native-born Americans. In fact, quite the contrary…
Others believe that the wall would stop the flow of methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroin into the country. However, the DEA has reported that the bulk of South American drugs that enter the US are brought through legal ports of entry on passenger vehicles or tractor trailers (hasn’t anyone seen Breaking Bad?).
Another common fear is that terrorist groups are using the southern border to infiltrate the US with numbers in the thousands. Not only is this not true, Donald Trump’s own State Department issued a 2017 report saying that there is, “no credible evidence terrorist groups sent operatives via Mexico into the United States.”
Some also say that without a border wall, you don’t have a country at all. Regardless, in almost all cases, illegal immigration is the primary concern of those who are of a pro-wall persuasion. The purpose is to limit, restrict, or otherwise control who enters the country.
Let’s start by taking a look at immigration along the southern border…
According to the Pew Research Center, there were approximately 10.7 million undocumented immigrants in the US in 2016. Where do these undocumented immigrants come from?
Every year, thousands of temporary visas are granted by the US government to allow students, workers, and tourists to enter the United States. These visas range in duration from a few weeks to several years. Visa overstays are those who have been granted legal entry into the US, but stay past the expiration of their temporary visa.
A study published by the Center for Migration Studies has shown that visa overstays vastly outnumber the rate at which undocumented immigrants cross the border. According to this study, visa overstays account for 66% of the total undocumented immigrant population in America. Remember this… it will be important in a minute.
The Pew Research Center is very much on the same page. According to the Pew Research Center, approximately half of the unauthorized immigrants that now reside in the United States entered the country entered though legal ports of entry such as airports or border crossing points. And according to Politifact, up to 40% of undocumented immigrants come here on planes. Airplanes… I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.
These statistics are slightly different, but not really. About half of the undocumented immigrants in the US came here legally and stayed too long, thus becoming undocumented or “illegal” immigrants. A border wall would change none of that. About half of the undocumented immigrants would not be affected by a border wall whatsoever.
So we’ve determined, using data that has been gathered, compiled, analyzed, and published by experts, that about half of the undocumented immigrants arrive in the US through means other than illegal entry. In theory, a border wall could stop the remaining 50%, right?
Not necessarily…
For many years, there was a circular flow between the US and Mexico. People would enter the US, work for a while, earn money, and return to their families in Mexico. Many would do this regularly, crossing back and forth between the US and Mexico.
According to Doug Massey of Princeton University, when the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations tightened down on border security, it was discovered that the number of undocumented immigrants living in the US had actually risen by 250%. Because of the tightening of the border, most undocumented immigrants didn’t want to risk returning to Mexico for fear that they wouldn’t be able to come back. Undocumented immigrants (and legal immigrants who ultimately overstayed their visas) came in, but few left. Naturally, this caused the number of undocumented immigrants in the US to rise tremendously since the circular flow had turned into a one-way flow (Massey’s entire article is titled, ‘Why Border Enforcement Backfired’). Rather than stopping undocumented immigrants from coming in to the US, we really stopped them from returning to Mexico. Let’s say that a border wall stopped people from just running across or through the border. Immigrants would still be coming in to the US with legal, documented visas and not returning home. The net effect on the population of undocumented immigrants would still be an increase.
However, in 2015, the US Border Patrol reported that illegal border crossings reached an all-time low. There are numerous reasons for this. In recent years, the Mexican economy has been doing fairly well. Population growth in Mexico is down from previous years, so there isn’t as much pressure or reason for people to leave.
So, given the purposes that we decided on in the beginning, would a border wall work to end undocumented immigrants entering the country? In short, probably not. Instead a border wall between the US and Mexico would be a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars (or in a fantasy world, Mexican dollars) that would have little to no effect on reducing the number of undocumented immigrants living in the US. As research has shown, it may actually have a net increase on the number of undocumented immigrants living in the US.
Initially, a border wall sounds like a great solution to the “problem” of immigration. Our houses have walls. Our schools have walls. Our prisons have walls. Why shouldn’t our country? The truth is, illegal or undocumented immigration is a matter far too complex and too nuanced to be solved with the blunt instrument of a border wall. As we’ve seen, there are many factors at work, and a knee-jerk reaction is rarely the right one — especially a 15 to 25 billion dollar reaction.
This may even be a moot point in a few years. We may end up with a wall. We may not. We may trade in our children’s future, to fund political gain today. We may allow ourselves to be manipulated by falsehoods, fear and emotion, rather than being swayed by data, facts, and evidence. We may use our own citizens as leverage in a political game of partisan chess, playing fast and loose with their livelihoods. And we may cease to be the nation that people want to flock to for protection and a chance at freedom and prosperity. If the recent shift in the political winds are any indication, we may already be headed down that path. If we, as the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, stop investing public funds to create opportunity, and instead start using them to squander it, we won’t be the land of hope. We will be the land of the hopeless. The reason that so many people have been willing to risk their lives to come to the US is because it has always been a bastion of freedom, and opportunity — a lighthouse for those who live in despair.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”-An exerpt from The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus, inscribed at the base of The Statue of Liberty
