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Mexico–United States barrier

January 16, 2023

This article is about the current Mexico–US barrier. For former President Donald Trump's expansion, see Trump wall.

The Mexico–United States barrier (Spanish: barrera Estados Unidos–México), also known as the border wall, is a series of vertical barriers along the Mexico–United States border intended to reduce illegal immigration to the United States from Mexico.[1] The barrier is not a continuous structure but a series of obstructions variously classified as "fences" or "walls".[2]

Map of the Mexico–United States barrier in 2017
Border fence near El Paso, Texas
Border fence between San Diego's border patrol offices in California, USA (left) and Tijuana, Mexico (right)

Between the physical barriers, security is provided by a "virtual fence" of sensors, cameras, and other surveillance equipment used to dispatch United States Border Patrol agents to suspected migrant crossings.[3] In May 2011, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated that it had 649 miles (1,044 km) of barriers in place.[4] An additional 52 miles of primary barriers were built during Donald Trump's presidency.[5] The total length of the national border is 1,954 miles (3,145 km). On July 28, 2022, the Biden administration announced it would fill four wide gaps in Arizona near Yuma, an area with some of the busiest corridors for illegal crossings.[6]

Description

The 1,954 miles (3,145 km) border between the United States and Mexico traverses a variety of terrains, including urban areas and deserts.[7] The border from the Gulf of Mexico to El Paso, Texas, follows along the Rio Grande forming a natural barrier. The barrier is located on both urban and uninhabited sections of the border, areas where the most concentrated numbers of illegal crossings and drug trafficking have been observed in the past. These urban areas include San Diego, California, and El Paso, Texas.[8] The fencing includes a steel fence (varying in height between 18 and 27 feet) that divides the border towns of Nogales, Arizona, in the U.S. and Nogales, Sonora, in Mexico.[9]

97% of border apprehensions (foreign nationals who are caught being in the U.S. illegally) by the Border Patrol in 2010 occurred at the southwest border. The number of Border Patrol apprehensions declined 61% from 1,189,000 in 2005 to 723,842 in 2008 to 463,000 in 2010. The decrease in apprehensions are the result of numerous factors, including changes in U.S. economic conditions and border enforcement efforts. Border apprehensions in 2010 were at their lowest level since 1972.[8][10] Total apprehensions for 2017, 2018, and 2019 were 415,517, 521,090, 977,509 respectively. This shows a recent increase in apprehensions.[11] And while the barrier is along the Mexico-United States border, 80% of the apprehended crossers are non-Mexican.[12]

As a result of the barrier, there has been a significant increase in the number of people trying to cross areas that have no fence, such as the Sonoran Desert and the Baboquivari Mountains in Arizona.[13] Such immigrants must cross fifty miles (80 km) of inhospitable terrain to reach the first road, which is located in the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation.[13][14]

Geography

The Mexico–United States border stretches from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east. Border states include the Mexican states of Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas. U.S. states along the border are California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.[15]

US state Border length Mexican states
California 140.4 miles (226.0 km) Baja California
Arizona 372.5 miles (599.5 km) Baja California, Sonora
New Mexico 179.5 miles (288.9 km) Sonora, Chihuahua
Texas 1,241.0 miles (1,997.2 km) Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas
Total 1,933.4 miles (3,111.5 km) –

History

 
Two men scale the border fence into Mexico near Douglas, Arizona, in 2009

Origins

Territorial exchanges in the Mexican-American War (1846–48) and the Gadsden Purchase (1853) would largely establish the current U.S.-Mexico border. Until the early 20th century, the border was open open and largely unpatrolled, with only a few "mounted guards" patrolling its length.[16] However, tensions between the United States and Mexico started to rise with the Mexican Revolution (1910) and World War I, which also increased concerns about weapons smuggling, refugees and cross-border espionage. The first international bridge was the Brownsville & Matamoros International Bridge built in 1910. The first barrier built by the U.S. (a barbed wire fence to prevent the movement of cattle across the border) was built in Ambos Nogales between 1909 and 1911. The first barrier built by Mexico was likely a six-foot-tall wire fence built in 1918 explicitly for the purpose of directing the flow of people, also in Ambos Nogales. Barriers were extended in the following decades, with barriers becoming a common feature in border towns by the 1920s. In the 1940s, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service built chain-link barriers along the border.[17]

U.S. President George H. W. Bush approved the initial 14 miles of fencing along the San Diego–Tijuana border.[18] In 1993, President Bill Clinton oversaw initial border fence construction which was completed by the end of the year. Starting in 1994, further barriers were built under Clinton's presidency as part of three larger operations to taper transportation of illegal drugs manufactured in Latin America and immigration: Operation Gatekeeper in California, Operation Hold-the-Line[19] in Texas, and Operation Safeguard[20] in Arizona. Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which authorized further barriers and the reinforcement of the initial border fence. The majority of the border barriers built in the 1990s were made out of leftover helicopter landing mats from the Vietnam War.[18]

Bush administration

The Real ID Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush on May 11, 2005, attached a rider to a supplemental appropriations bill funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which went into effect in May 2008:

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive all legal requirements such Secretary, in such Secretary's sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads.

In 2005, there were 75 miles of fencing along the border.[21] In 2005, the border-located Laredo Community College obtained a 10-foot fence built by the United States Marine Corps. The structure led to a reported decline in border crossings on to the campus.[22] U.S. Representative Duncan Hunter of California proposed a plan on November 3, 2005, calling for the construction of a reinforced fence along the entire United States–Mexico border. This would also have included a 100-yard (91 m) border zone on the U.S. side. On December 15, 2005, Congressman Hunter's amendment to the Border Protection, Anti-terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 (H.R. 4437) passed in the House, but the bill did not pass the Senate. This plan called for mandatory fencing along 698 miles (1,123 km) of the 1,954-mile (3,145-kilometer)-long border.[23] On May 17, 2006, the U.S. Senate proposed the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 (S. 2611), which would include 370 miles (600 km) of triple-layered fencing and a vehicle fence, but the bill died in committee.[24]

Secure Fence Act of 2006

 
A section of the barrier, made out of steel slats, ending in the Pacific Ocean in San Diego–Tijuana
 
The border fence between El Paso and Juarez has an elaborate gate structure to allow floodwaters to pass under. The grates prevent people being able to cross under, and can be raised for floodwaters carrying debris. Beyond the fence is a canal and levee before the Rio Grande.
 
Aerial view of El Paso, Texas, (top and left) and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, (bottom and right). The brightly lit border can clearly be seen as it divides the two cities at night. The dark section at left is where the border crosses Mount Cristo Rey, an unfenced rugged area.

The Secure Fence Act of 2006, signed into law on October 26, 2006, by President George W. Bush[25] authorized and partially funded the potential construction of 700 miles (1,125 km) of physical fence/barriers along the Mexican border. The bill passed with supermajorities in both chambers.[26][27] Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff announced that an eight-month test of the virtual fence he favored would precede any construction of a physical barrier.

The government of Mexico and ministers of several Latin American countries condemned the plans. Governor of Texas Rick Perry expressed his opposition, saying that the border should be more open and should support safe and legal migration with the use of technology.[28] The barrier expansion was opposed by a unanimous vote by the Laredo, Texas, City Council.[29] Laredo Mayor Raul G. Salinas said that the bill would devastate Laredo. He stated "These are people that are sustaining our economy by forty percent, and I am gonna close the door on them and put [up] a wall? You don't do that. It's like a slap in the face." He hoped that Congress would revise the bill to better reflect the realities of life on the border.[30]

Secretary Chertoff exercised his waiver authority on April 1, 2008, to "waive in their entirety" the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Coastal Zone Management Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act to extend triple fencing through the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve near San Diego.[31] By January 2009, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security had spent $40 million on environmental analysis and mitigation measures aimed at blunting any possible adverse impact that the fence might have on the environment. On January 16, 2009, DHS announced it was pledging an additional $50 million for that purpose, and signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of the Interior for utilization of the additional funding.[32] In January 2009, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that it had more than 580 miles (930 km) of barriers in place.[33]

Obama administration

On March 16, 2010, DHS announced that there would be a halt to expand the virtual fence beyond two pilot projects in Arizona.[34] Contractor Boeing Corporation had numerous delays and cost overruns. Boeing had initially used police-dispatching software that was unable to process all of the information coming from the border. The $50 million of remaining funding would be used for mobile surveillance devices, sensors, and radios to patrol and protect the border. At the time, DHS had spent $3.4 billion on border fences and had built 640 miles (1,030 km) of fences and barriers as part of the Secure Border Initiative.[34]

In May 2011, President Barack Obama stated that the wall was "basically complete", with 649 miles (1,044 km) of 652 planned miles of barrier constructed. Of this, vehicle barriers comprised 299 miles (481 km) and pedestrian fence 350 miles (560 km). Obama stated that:

We have gone above and beyond what was requested by the very Republicans who said they supported broader reform as long as we got serious about enforcement. All the stuff they asked for, we've done. But ... I suspect there are still going to be some who are trying to move the goal posts on us one more time. They'll want a higher fence. Maybe they'll need a moat. Maybe they want alligators in the moat.[a] They'll never be satisfied. And I understand that. That's politics.[4]

The Republican Party's 2012 platform stated that "The double-layered fencing on the border that was enacted by Congress in 2006, but never completed, must finally be built."[36] The Secure Fence Act's costs were estimated at $6 billion,[37] more than the Customs and Border Protection's entire annual discretionary budget of $5.6 billion.[38] The Washington Office on Latin America noted in 2013 that the cost of complying with the Secure Fence Act's mandate was the reason that it had not been completely fulfilled.[39]

A 2016 report by the Government Accountability Office confirmed that the government had completed the fence by 2015.[40] A 2017 report noted that "In addition to the 654 miles of primary fencing, [Customs and Border Protection] has also deployed additional layers of pedestrian fencing behind the primary border fencing, including 37 miles of secondary fencing and 14 miles of tertiary fencing."[41]

Trump administration

Main article: Trump wall
See also: Executive Order 13767, Immigration policy of Donald Trump, and 2017 Mexico–United States diplomatic crisis
 
President Donald Trump signing Executive Order 13767

Throughout his 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump called for the construction of a much larger and fortified border wall, claiming that if elected, he would "build the wall and make Mexico pay for it". Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto maintained that his country would not pay for the wall.[42][43][44] On January 25, 2017, the Trump administration signed Executive Order 13767, which formally directed the US government to begin attempting to construct a border wall using existing federal funding, although construction did not begin at this time because a formal budget had not been developed.[45]

Trump's campaign promise has faced a host of legal and logistical challenges since. In March 2018, the Trump administration secured $1.6 billion from Congress for projects at the border for existing designs of approximately 100 miles of new and replacement walls.[46] From December 22, 2018, to January 25, 2019, the federal government was partially shut down because of Trump's declared intention to veto any spending bill that did not include $5 billion in funding for a border wall.[47]

On May 24, 2019, federal Judge Haywood Gilliam in the Northern District of California granted a preliminary injunction preventing the Trump administration from redirecting funds under the national emergency declaration issued earlier in the year to fund a planned wall along the border with Mexico. The injunction applies specifically to money the administration intended to allocate from other agencies and limits wall construction projects in El Paso and Yuma.[48] On June 28, Gilliam blocked the reallocation of $2.5 billion of funding from the Department of Defense to the construction of segments of the border wall categorized as high priority by the Trump administration (spanning across Arizona, California and New Mexico).[49] The decision was upheld five days later by a majority in the Ninth Circuit Appeals Court[50] but was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court on July 26.[51] On September 3, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper authorized the use of $3.6 billion in military construction funding for 175 miles of the barrier.[52][53] The House and Senate have twice voted to terminate Trump's emergency declaration, but the president vetoed both resolutions.[54] In October, a lawsuit filed in El Paso County produced a ruling that the emergency declaration was unlawful, as it fails to meet the National Emergencies Act's definition of an emergency.[55] On December 10, a federal judge in the case blocked the use of the funding,[56] but on January 8, 2020, a federal appeals court granted a stay of the ruling, freeing $3.6 billion for the wall.[57]

As of August 2019, the Trump administration's barrier construction had been limited to replacing sections that were in need of repair or outdated,[58] with 60 miles of replacement wall built in the Southwest since 2017.[59] As of September 12, 2019, the Trump administration plans for "Between 450 and 500 miles (724–806 kilometers) of fencing along the nearly 2,000-mile (3,218-kilometer) border by the end of 2020"[60][61] with an estimated total cost of $18.4 billion.[62] Privately owned land adjacent to the border would have to be acquired by the U.S. government to be built upon.[53]

On June 23, Trump visited Yuma, Arizona, for a campaign rally commemorating the completion of 200 miles (320 km) of the wall.[63] U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed that almost all of this was replacement fencing.[64] By the end of Trump's term on January 21, 2021, 452 miles (727 km) had been built at last report by CBP on January 5, much of it replacing outdated or dilapidated existing barriers.[65]

Contractors and independent efforts

As of February 2019, contractors were preparing to construct $600 million worth of replacement barriers along the south Texas Rio Grande Valley section of the border wall, approved by Congress in March 2018.[66][67] In mid-April 2019, former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach visited Coolidge, Arizona, to observe a demonstration by North Dakota's Fisher Industries of how it would build a border fence. The company maintained that it could erect 218 miles of the barrier for $3.3 billion and be able to complete it in 13 months. Spin cameras positioned atop the fence would use facial-recognition technology, and underground fiber optic cables could detect and differentiate between human activity, vehicles, tunneling, and animals as distant as 40 feet away. The proposed barrier would be constructed with 42 miles (68 km) near Yuma and 91 miles (147 km) near Tucson, Arizona, 69 miles near El Paso, Texas, and 15 miles (25 km) near El Centro, California—reportedly costing $12.5 million per mile.[68] In April 2019, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy said that he traveled with the group of politicians and administration officials over the Easter recess to Coolidge (120 miles north of the Mexico border) because he felt that insufficient barrier and border enhancements had been erected since Trump became president.[68] U.S. senator Kevin Cramer was also there, promoting Fisher Industries, which demonstrated the construction of a 56-foot (18 m) fence in Coolidge.[69]

A private organization founded by military veteran Brian Kolfage called "We Build the Wall" raised over $20 million beginning in 2018, with President Trump's encouragement and with leadership from Kobach and Steve Bannon. Over the 2019 Memorial Day weekend, the organization constructed a 1/2 to 1-mile "weathered steel" bollard fence near El Paso on private land adjoining the US–Mexico border using $6–8 million of the donated funds. Kolfage's organization says it has plans to construct further barriers on private lands adjoining the border in Texas and California.[70][71][72] On December 3, 2019, a Hidalgo County judge ordered the group to temporarily halt all construction because of its plans to build adjacent to the Rio Grande, which a lawyer for the National Butterfly Center argues would create a flooding risk.[73] On January 9, 2020, a federal judge lifted an injunction, allowing a construction firm to move forward with the 3 mile project along the Rio Grande.[74] This ended a month long court battle with both the Federal Government and the National Butterfly Center which both tried to block construction efforts.

Biden administration

President Joe Biden signed an executive order[75] on his first day of office, January 20, 2021, ordering a "pause" in all construction of the wall no later than January 27.[76] The government was given two months to plan how to spend the funds elsewhere and determine how much it would cost to terminate the contracts. There are no plans to tear down parts of the wall that have been built.[77] The deployment of 3,000 National Guard troops along the border will continue.[78] The Biden administration has continued to seize land for construction of the border wall.[79][80] By December 2021, many contracts had been cancelled, including one requiring the possession of the land of a family represented by the Texas Civil Rights Project.[81]

In June 2021, Texas governor Greg Abbott announced plans to build a border wall in his state, saying that the state would provide $250 million and that direct donations from the public would be solicited.[82][83] On June 29, the Republican Study Committee organized a group of two dozen Republican House members to visit a gap in the border where Central Americans were crossing into the country. Representative Mary Miller (R-IL) stated that "obviously our president has advertised this and facilitated this invasion". Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) praised the effectiveness of Trump's wall and said that because of the halted construction, "thousands of migrants [pass] through this area on a regular basis ... because there's an open door that allows them to do that". In reference to wristbands on migrants used by Mexican cartels and smugglers to track them, Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) stated, "They're basically treating people like Amazon products. ... There is no care that that is a human being, someone who has a soul, someone who has unalienable rights that predate any government."[84]

On July 28, 2022, the Biden administration announced it would fill four wide gaps in Arizona near Yuma, an area with some of the busiest corridors for illegal crossings.[6]

Binational River Park

In 2021, in collaboration with United States and Mexican ambassadors, as well as businessmen, a binational park was proposed along the Rio Grande between the border towns of Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Supported by the No Border Wall Coalition, the park aims to create a shared recreational space instead of a border wall. Earthjustice estimated that the decision to not build a border wall in Laredo saved 71 miles of river from destruction and over $1 billion in taxpayer dollars.[85][86][87]

 

Arizona container wall

In August 2022, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey ordered the erection of a makeshift wall of shipping containers on the border with Mexico in Cochise County, Arizona. The construction began in the Coronado National Forest without authorization from the U.S. Forest Service, which operates the land. Ecologists at the Center for Biological Diversity argue that the construction, which imperils at-risk species including the ocelot and jaguar, violates the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and have sued to halt its construction.[88] Governor-elect Katie Hobbs stated that she would remove the containers after taking office,[89] and the U.S. Justice Department sued the state to remove the containers and "compensate the [U.S.] for any actions it needs to take to undo Arizona's actions".[90] Deconstruction had begun by January.[91]

Controversy

 
This 2017 fence upgrade at Anapra was planned by the Obama administration.
 
Repair work on a section of border fencing in California in 2018

Effectiveness

Research at Texas A&M University and Texas Tech University indicates that the wall, like border walls in general, is unlikely to be effective at reducing illegal immigration or movement of contraband.[92] In mid-April 2019, U.S. Senator Martha McSally said that a barrier will not resolve the border crisis.[93] Authors of books on the effectiveness have said that aside from the human crossings, drugs among other things will still be making their way to the United States illegally.[94] However, US Customs and Border Protection has frequently called for more physical barriers on the Mexico–United States border, citing their efficacy.[95] Smugglers in 2021 used demolition tools and power saws on pieces of wall in Arizona.[96]

Divided land

Main article: Indigenous conflicts on the Mexico–United States barrier

Tribal lands of three indigenous nations are divided by a proposed border fence.[97][98]

On January 27, 2008, a Native American human rights delegation in the United States, which included Margo Tamez (Lipan Apache-Jumano Apache) and Teresa Leal (Opata-Mayo) reported the removal of the official International Boundary obelisks of 1848 by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the Las Mariposas, Sonora-Arizona sector of the Mexico–U.S. border.[99][100] The obelisks were moved southward approximately 20 m (70 ft), onto the property of private landowners in Sonora, as part of the larger project of installing the 18-foot (5.5 m) steel barrier wall.[101]

The proposed route for the border fence would divide the campus of the University of Texas at Brownsville into two parts, according to Antonio N. Zavaleta, a vice president of the university.[102] There have been campus protests against the wall by students who feel it will harm their school.[3] In August 2008, UT-Brownsville reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for the university to construct a portion of the fence across and adjacent to its property. On August 20, 2008, the university sent out a request for bids for the construction of a 10-foot (3.0 m) high barrier that incorporates technology security for its segment of the border fence project. The southern perimeter of the UT-Brownsville campus will be part of a laboratory for testing new security technology and infrastructure combinations.[103] The border fence segment on the campus was substantially completed by December 2008.[104]

The SpaceX South Texas Launch Site was shown on a map of the Department of Homeland Security with the barrier cutting through the 50-acre facility (20 ha) in Boca Chica, Texas.[105]

Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge

On August 1, 2018, the chief of the Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley sector indicated that although Starr County was his first priority for a wall, Hidalgo County's Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge had been selected instead for initial construction, because its land was owned by the government.[106]

National Butterfly Center

The proposed border wall has been described as a "death sentence" for the American National Butterfly Center, a privately operated outdoor butterfly conservatory that maintains a significant amount of land in Mexico.[107][108][106] Filmmaker Krista Schlyer, part of an all-woman team creating a documentary film about the butterflies and the border wall, Ay Mariposa,[109] estimates that construction would put "70 percent of the preserve habitat" on the Mexican side of the border.[110] In addition to concerns about seizure of private property by the federal government,[111] center employees have also noted the local economic impact. The center's director has stated that "environmental tourism contributes more than $450m to Hidalgo and Starr counties."[107]

In early December 2018, a challenge to wall construction at the National Butterfly Center was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. According to the San Antonio Express News, "the high court let stand an appeals ruling that lets the administration bypass 28 federal laws", including the Endangered Species Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.[108]

Mexico's condemnations

See also: Mexico–United States relations
 
Mexico–United States barrier at the pedestrian border crossing in Tijuana

In 2006, the Mexican government vigorously condemned the Secure Fence Act of 2006. Mexico has also urged the U.S. to alter its plans for expanded fences along their shared border, saying that it would damage the environment and harm wildlife.[112]

In 2012, Enrique Peña Nieto was campaigning in Tijuana at the Playas de Monumental, less than 600 yards (550 m) from the U.S.–Mexico border adjacent to Border Field State Park. In one of his speeches he criticized the U.S. government for building the barriers and asked for them to be removed, referencing President Ronald Reagan's "Tear down this wall!" speech from Berlin in 1987.[113]

Migrant deaths

 
The wall at the border of Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego; the crosses represent migrants who have died in crossing attempts.

Between 1994 and 2007, there were around 5,000 migrant deaths along the Mexico–United States border, according to a document created by the Human Rights National Commission of Mexico, also signed by the American Civil Liberties Union.[114] Between 43 and 61 people died trying to cross the Sonoran Desert from October 2003 to May 2004; three times that of the same period the previous year.[13] In October 2004, the Border Patrol announced that 325 people had died crossing the entire border during the previous 12 months.[115] Between 1998 and 2004, 1,954 persons are officially reported to have died along the Mexico–U.S. border. Since 2004, the bodies of 1,086 migrants have been recovered in the southern Arizona desert.[116]

U.S. Border Patrol Tucson Sector reported on October 15, 2008, that its agents were able to save 443 illegal immigrants from certain death after being abandoned by their smugglers. The agents also reducing the number of deaths by 17% from 202 in 2007 to 167 in 2008. Without the efforts of these agents, hundreds more could have died in the deserts of Arizona.[117] According to the same sector, border enhancements like the wall have allowed the Tucson Sector agents to reduce the number of apprehensions at the borders by 16% compared with 2007.[118]

Environmental impact

See also: Environmental issues along the Mexico–United States border

In April 2008, the Department of Homeland Security announced plans to waive more than 30 environmental and cultural laws to speed construction of the barrier. Despite claims from then Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff that the department would minimize the construction's impact on the environment, critics in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, asserted that the fence endangered species and fragile ecosystems along the Rio Grande. Environmentalists expressed concern about butterfly migration corridors and the future of species of local wildcats, the ocelot, the jaguarundi, and the jaguar.[119][120]

By August 2008, more than 90% of the southern border in Arizona and New Mexico had been surveyed. In addition, 80% of the California–Mexico border has been surveyed.[121] About 100 species of plants and animals, many already endangered, are threatened by the wall, including the jaguar, ocelot, Sonoran pronghorn, Mexican wolf, a pygmy owl, the thick-billed parrot, and the Quino checkerspot butterfly. According to Scott Egan of Rice University, a wall can create a population bottleneck, increase inbreeding, and cut off natural migration routes and range expansion.[122][123]

In 2008 a resolution "based on sound and accurate scientific knowledge" expressing opposition to the wall and the harmful impact on several rare, threatened, and endangered species, particularly endangered mammals such as the jaguar, ocelot, jaguarondi, and Sonoran pronghorn, was published by The Southwestern Association of Naturalists, an organization of 791 scientists specializing in the zoology, botany, and ecology of southwestern USA and Mexico.[124] A decade later in 2018, well over 2500 scientists from 43 countries published a statement opposing the Border Wall, affirming it will have "significant consequences for biodiversity" and "Already-built sections of the wall are reducing the area, quality, and connectivity of plant and animal habitats and are compromising more than a century of binational investment in conservation."[125]

An initial 75-mile (121 km) wall for which U.S. funding has been requested on the nearly 2,000-mile (3,200 km) mile border would pass through the Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge in California, the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge and Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge[126] in Texas, and Mexico's Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that the U.S. is bound by global treaty to protect.[127] The U.S. Customs and Border Protection plans to build the wall using the Real ID Act to avoid the process of making environmental impact statements, a strategy devised by Chertoff during the Bush administration. Reuters said, "The Real ID Act also allows the secretary of Homeland Security to exempt CBP from adhering to the Endangered Species Act", which would otherwise prohibit construction in a wildlife refuge.[128]

Polling

A Rasmussen Reports poll from August 19, 2015, found that 51% supported building a wall on the border, while 37% opposed.[129]

In a January 2017 study conducted by the Pew Research Center, 39% of Americans identified construction of a U.S.–Mexico border wall as an "important goal for U.S. immigration policy". The survey found that while Americans were divided by party on many different immigration policies, "the widest [partisan split] by far is over building a southern border wall. Two-thirds of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (67%) say construction of a wall on the U.S.–Mexico border is an important goal for immigration policy, compared with just 16 percent of Democrats and Democratic leaners."[130]

A survey conducted by the National Border Patrol Council found that 89% of border patrol agents said a "wall system in strategic locations is necessary to securing the border". 7% of agents disagreed.[131]

A poll conducted by CBS in June 21–22 2018 found that 51% supported the border wall, while 48% opposed.[132]

A poll conducted by the Senate Opportunity Fund in March of 2021 found that 53% supported finishing construction of the border wall, while 38% opposed.[133]

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Privately suggested by Obama's successor, Republican Donald Trump[35]

Citations

  1. ^ Garcia, Michael John (November 18, 2016). Barriers Along the U.S. Borders: Key Authorities and Requirements (PDF). Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service. Retrieved December 9, 2016.
  2. ^ Chaichian, Mohammad. 2014. Empires and Walls: Globalization, Migration, and Colonial Domination (Brill, pp. 175–235)
  3. ^ a b "The Border Fence". NOW on PBS.
  4. ^ a b Farley, Robert (May 16, 2011). "Obama says the border fence is 'now basically complete'". Politifact. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  5. ^ Farley, Robert (February 16, 2021). "Trump's Border Wall: Where Does It Stand?". FactCheck.org. Retrieved June 13, 2021.
  6. ^ a b "Biden administration to fill border wall gaps near Yuma, Arizona". NBC News. Retrieved July 30, 2022.
  7. ^ "The Wall: How long is the U.S.–Mexico border?". USA TODAY. Retrieved January 13, 2019.
  8. ^ a b Sapp, Lesley (July 2011). Apprehensions by the U.S. Border Patrol: 2005–2010. Office of Immigration Studies, United States Department of Homeland Security (Washington, D.C.) Retrieved November 18, 2011
  9. ^ Peter Holley, "Trump proposes a border wall. But there already is one, and it gets climbed over", Washington Post (April 2, 2016).
  10. ^ "U.S. Homeland Security secretary has 'elbow room' on building border wall". Homeland Preparedness News. April 5, 2017. Retrieved April 21, 2017.
  11. ^ "Southwest Border Migration FY 2020". Department of Homeland Security. February 11, 2020. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  12. ^ "What's happening at the U.S.–Mexico border in 5 charts". Pew Research Center. Retrieved April 8, 2020.
  13. ^ a b c "Border Desert Proves Deadly For Mexicans". The New York Times. May 23, 2004.
  14. ^ One Nation, Under Fire High Country News, February 19, 2007.
  15. ^ "US States That Border Mexico".
  16. ^ [1]
  17. ^ John, Rachel St. "The Raging Controversy at the Border Began With This Incident 100 Years Ago". Smithsonian Magazine.
  18. ^ a b "This is how much of the border wall has been built so far". WSYM. January 19, 2019. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
  19. ^ McPhail, Weldon, Assistant Director, Administration of Justice Issues, Dennise R. Stickley, Evaluator, David P. Alexander, Social Science Analyst: Washington, DC, Appendix I:1; Michael P. Dino, Evaluator-in-Charge, James R. Russell, Evaluator: LA Regional Office, Appendix I:2; "Border Control: Revised Strategy Is Showing Some Positive Results". Subcommittee on Information, Justice, Transportation and Agriculture, Committee on Government Operations, House of Representatives, December 29, 1994.
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Further reading

  • Chaichian, Mohammad. 2014. Empires and Walls: Globalization, Migration, and Colonial Domination (Brill, pp. 175–235)
  • "Border Security: Barriers Along the U.S. International Border". Congressional Research Service.
  • Gerstein, Josh (July 26, 2019). "Supreme Court gives Trump go-ahead on border wall". Politico.
  • The High Cost and Diminishing Returns of a Border Wall

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to US-Mexico barrier.
  • Border Wall System CBP.gov
  • This Is What the U.S.–Mexico Border Wall Actually Looks Like. National Geographic Society
  • US–Mexico Border Barriers, Historical Timeline and Summary Statistics

January 16, 2023
mexico, united, states, barrier, this, article, about, current, mexico, barrier, former, president, donald, trump, expansion, trump, wall, spanish, barrera, estados, unidos, méxico, also, known, border, wall, series, vertical, barriers, along, mexico, united, . This article is about the current Mexico US barrier For former President Donald Trump s expansion see Trump wall The Mexico United States barrier Spanish barrera Estados Unidos Mexico also known as the border wall is a series of vertical barriers along the Mexico United States border intended to reduce illegal immigration to the United States from Mexico 1 The barrier is not a continuous structure but a series of obstructions variously classified as fences or walls 2 Map of the Mexico United States barrier in 2017 Border fence near El Paso Texas Border fence between San Diego s border patrol offices in California USA left and Tijuana Mexico right Between the physical barriers security is provided by a virtual fence of sensors cameras and other surveillance equipment used to dispatch United States Border Patrol agents to suspected migrant crossings 3 In May 2011 the Department of Homeland Security DHS stated that it had 649 miles 1 044 km of barriers in place 4 An additional 52 miles of primary barriers were built during Donald Trump s presidency 5 The total length of the national border is 1 954 miles 3 145 km On July 28 2022 the Biden administration announced it would fill four wide gaps in Arizona near Yuma an area with some of the busiest corridors for illegal crossings 6 Contents 1 Description 2 Geography 3 History 3 1 Origins 3 2 Bush administration 3 2 1 Secure Fence Act of 2006 3 3 Obama administration 3 4 Trump administration 3 4 1 Contractors and independent efforts 3 5 Biden administration 3 5 1 Binational River Park 3 5 2 Arizona container wall 4 Controversy 4 1 Effectiveness 4 2 Divided land 4 3 Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge 4 4 National Butterfly Center 4 5 Mexico s condemnations 4 6 Migrant deaths 4 7 Environmental impact 5 Polling 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 9 External linksDescription EditThe 1 954 miles 3 145 km border between the United States and Mexico traverses a variety of terrains including urban areas and deserts 7 The border from the Gulf of Mexico to El Paso Texas follows along the Rio Grande forming a natural barrier The barrier is located on both urban and uninhabited sections of the border areas where the most concentrated numbers of illegal crossings and drug trafficking have been observed in the past These urban areas include San Diego California and El Paso Texas 8 The fencing includes a steel fence varying in height between 18 and 27 feet that divides the border towns of Nogales Arizona in the U S and Nogales Sonora in Mexico 9 97 of border apprehensions foreign nationals who are caught being in the U S illegally by the Border Patrol in 2010 occurred at the southwest border The number of Border Patrol apprehensions declined 61 from 1 189 000 in 2005 to 723 842 in 2008 to 463 000 in 2010 The decrease in apprehensions are the result of numerous factors including changes in U S economic conditions and border enforcement efforts Border apprehensions in 2010 were at their lowest level since 1972 8 10 Total apprehensions for 2017 2018 and 2019 were 415 517 521 090 977 509 respectively This shows a recent increase in apprehensions 11 And while the barrier is along the Mexico United States border 80 of the apprehended crossers are non Mexican 12 As a result of the barrier there has been a significant increase in the number of people trying to cross areas that have no fence such as the Sonoran Desert and the Baboquivari Mountains in Arizona 13 Such immigrants must cross fifty miles 80 km of inhospitable terrain to reach the first road which is located in the Tohono O odham Indian Reservation 13 14 Geography EditThe Mexico United States border stretches from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east Border states include the Mexican states of Baja California Sonora Chihuahua Coahuila Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas U S states along the border are California Arizona New Mexico and Texas 15 US state Border length Mexican statesCalifornia 140 4 miles 226 0 km Baja CaliforniaArizona 372 5 miles 599 5 km Baja California SonoraNew Mexico 179 5 miles 288 9 km Sonora ChihuahuaTexas 1 241 0 miles 1 997 2 km Chihuahua Coahuila Nuevo Leon TamaulipasTotal 1 933 4 miles 3 111 5 km History Edit Two men scale the border fence into Mexico near Douglas Arizona in 2009 Origins Edit Territorial exchanges in the Mexican American War 1846 48 and the Gadsden Purchase 1853 would largely establish the current U S Mexico border Until the early 20th century the border was open open and largely unpatrolled with only a few mounted guards patrolling its length 16 However tensions between the United States and Mexico started to rise with the Mexican Revolution 1910 and World War I which also increased concerns about weapons smuggling refugees and cross border espionage The first international bridge was the Brownsville amp Matamoros International Bridge built in 1910 The first barrier built by the U S a barbed wire fence to prevent the movement of cattle across the border was built in Ambos Nogales between 1909 and 1911 The first barrier built by Mexico was likely a six foot tall wire fence built in 1918 explicitly for the purpose of directing the flow of people also in Ambos Nogales Barriers were extended in the following decades with barriers becoming a common feature in border towns by the 1920s In the 1940s the U S Immigration and Naturalization Service built chain link barriers along the border 17 U S President George H W Bush approved the initial 14 miles of fencing along the San Diego Tijuana border 18 In 1993 President Bill Clinton oversaw initial border fence construction which was completed by the end of the year Starting in 1994 further barriers were built under Clinton s presidency as part of three larger operations to taper transportation of illegal drugs manufactured in Latin America and immigration Operation Gatekeeper in California Operation Hold the Line 19 in Texas and Operation Safeguard 20 in Arizona Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 which authorized further barriers and the reinforcement of the initial border fence The majority of the border barriers built in the 1990s were made out of leftover helicopter landing mats from the Vietnam War 18 Bush administration EditThe Real ID Act signed into law by President George W Bush on May 11 2005 attached a rider to a supplemental appropriations bill funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which went into effect in May 2008 Notwithstanding any other provision of law the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive all legal requirements such Secretary in such Secretary s sole discretion determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads In 2005 there were 75 miles of fencing along the border 21 In 2005 the border located Laredo Community College obtained a 10 foot fence built by the United States Marine Corps The structure led to a reported decline in border crossings on to the campus 22 U S Representative Duncan Hunter of California proposed a plan on November 3 2005 calling for the construction of a reinforced fence along the entire United States Mexico border This would also have included a 100 yard 91 m border zone on the U S side On December 15 2005 Congressman Hunter s amendment to the Border Protection Anti terrorism and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 H R 4437 passed in the House but the bill did not pass the Senate This plan called for mandatory fencing along 698 miles 1 123 km of the 1 954 mile 3 145 kilometer long border 23 On May 17 2006 the U S Senate proposed the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006 S 2611 which would include 370 miles 600 km of triple layered fencing and a vehicle fence but the bill died in committee 24 Secure Fence Act of 2006 Edit The United States Border Patrol in the Algodones Dunes California A section of the barrier made out of steel slats ending in the Pacific Ocean in San Diego Tijuana Douglas Arizona 2009 The border fence between El Paso and Juarez has an elaborate gate structure to allow floodwaters to pass under The grates prevent people being able to cross under and can be raised for floodwaters carrying debris Beyond the fence is a canal and levee before the Rio Grande Aerial view of El Paso Texas top and left and Ciudad Juarez Chihuahua bottom and right The brightly lit border can clearly be seen as it divides the two cities at night The dark section at left is where the border crosses Mount Cristo Rey an unfenced rugged area The Secure Fence Act of 2006 signed into law on October 26 2006 by President George W Bush 25 authorized and partially funded the potential construction of 700 miles 1 125 km of physical fence barriers along the Mexican border The bill passed with supermajorities in both chambers 26 27 Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff announced that an eight month test of the virtual fence he favored would precede any construction of a physical barrier The government of Mexico and ministers of several Latin American countries condemned the plans Governor of Texas Rick Perry expressed his opposition saying that the border should be more open and should support safe and legal migration with the use of technology 28 The barrier expansion was opposed by a unanimous vote by the Laredo Texas City Council 29 Laredo Mayor Raul G Salinas said that the bill would devastate Laredo He stated These are people that are sustaining our economy by forty percent and I am gonna close the door on them and put up a wall You don t do that It s like a slap in the face He hoped that Congress would revise the bill to better reflect the realities of life on the border 30 Secretary Chertoff exercised his waiver authority on April 1 2008 to waive in their entirety the Endangered Species Act the Migratory Bird Treaty Act the National Environmental Policy Act the Coastal Zone Management Act the Clean Water Act the Clean Air Act and the National Historic Preservation Act to extend triple fencing through the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve near San Diego 31 By January 2009 U S Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security had spent 40 million on environmental analysis and mitigation measures aimed at blunting any possible adverse impact that the fence might have on the environment On January 16 2009 DHS announced it was pledging an additional 50 million for that purpose and signed an agreement with the U S Department of the Interior for utilization of the additional funding 32 In January 2009 U S Customs and Border Protection reported that it had more than 580 miles 930 km of barriers in place 33 Obama administration Edit On March 16 2010 DHS announced that there would be a halt to expand the virtual fence beyond two pilot projects in Arizona 34 Contractor Boeing Corporation had numerous delays and cost overruns Boeing had initially used police dispatching software that was unable to process all of the information coming from the border The 50 million of remaining funding would be used for mobile surveillance devices sensors and radios to patrol and protect the border At the time DHS had spent 3 4 billion on border fences and had built 640 miles 1 030 km of fences and barriers as part of the Secure Border Initiative 34 In May 2011 President Barack Obama stated that the wall was basically complete with 649 miles 1 044 km of 652 planned miles of barrier constructed Of this vehicle barriers comprised 299 miles 481 km and pedestrian fence 350 miles 560 km Obama stated that We have gone above and beyond what was requested by the very Republicans who said they supported broader reform as long as we got serious about enforcement All the stuff they asked for we ve done But I suspect there are still going to be some who are trying to move the goal posts on us one more time They ll want a higher fence Maybe they ll need a moat Maybe they want alligators in the moat a They ll never be satisfied And I understand that That s politics 4 The Republican Party s 2012 platform stated that The double layered fencing on the border that was enacted by Congress in 2006 but never completed must finally be built 36 The Secure Fence Act s costs were estimated at 6 billion 37 more than the Customs and Border Protection s entire annual discretionary budget of 5 6 billion 38 The Washington Office on Latin America noted in 2013 that the cost of complying with the Secure Fence Act s mandate was the reason that it had not been completely fulfilled 39 A 2016 report by the Government Accountability Office confirmed that the government had completed the fence by 2015 40 A 2017 report noted that In addition to the 654 miles of primary fencing Customs and Border Protection has also deployed additional layers of pedestrian fencing behind the primary border fencing including 37 miles of secondary fencing and 14 miles of tertiary fencing 41 Trump administration Edit Main article Trump wall See also Executive Order 13767 Immigration policy of Donald Trump and 2017 Mexico United States diplomatic crisis President Donald Trump signing Executive Order 13767 Throughout his 2016 presidential campaign Donald Trump called for the construction of a much larger and fortified border wall claiming that if elected he would build the wall and make Mexico pay for it Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto maintained that his country would not pay for the wall 42 43 44 On January 25 2017 the Trump administration signed Executive Order 13767 which formally directed the US government to begin attempting to construct a border wall using existing federal funding although construction did not begin at this time because a formal budget had not been developed 45 Trump s campaign promise has faced a host of legal and logistical challenges since In March 2018 the Trump administration secured 1 6 billion from Congress for projects at the border for existing designs of approximately 100 miles of new and replacement walls 46 From December 22 2018 to January 25 2019 the federal government was partially shut down because of Trump s declared intention to veto any spending bill that did not include 5 billion in funding for a border wall 47 On May 24 2019 federal Judge Haywood Gilliam in the Northern District of California granted a preliminary injunction preventing the Trump administration from redirecting funds under the national emergency declaration issued earlier in the year to fund a planned wall along the border with Mexico The injunction applies specifically to money the administration intended to allocate from other agencies and limits wall construction projects in El Paso and Yuma 48 On June 28 Gilliam blocked the reallocation of 2 5 billion of funding from the Department of Defense to the construction of segments of the border wall categorized as high priority by the Trump administration spanning across Arizona California and New Mexico 49 The decision was upheld five days later by a majority in the Ninth Circuit Appeals Court 50 but was overturned by the U S Supreme Court on July 26 51 On September 3 Secretary of Defense Mark Esper authorized the use of 3 6 billion in military construction funding for 175 miles of the barrier 52 53 The House and Senate have twice voted to terminate Trump s emergency declaration but the president vetoed both resolutions 54 In October a lawsuit filed in El Paso County produced a ruling that the emergency declaration was unlawful as it fails to meet the National Emergencies Act s definition of an emergency 55 On December 10 a federal judge in the case blocked the use of the funding 56 but on January 8 2020 a federal appeals court granted a stay of the ruling freeing 3 6 billion for the wall 57 As of August 2019 update the Trump administration s barrier construction had been limited to replacing sections that were in need of repair or outdated 58 with 60 miles of replacement wall built in the Southwest since 2017 59 As of September 12 2019 the Trump administration plans for Between 450 and 500 miles 724 806 kilometers of fencing along the nearly 2 000 mile 3 218 kilometer border by the end of 2020 60 61 with an estimated total cost of 18 4 billion 62 Privately owned land adjacent to the border would have to be acquired by the U S government to be built upon 53 On June 23 Trump visited Yuma Arizona for a campaign rally commemorating the completion of 200 miles 320 km of the wall 63 U S Customs and Border Protection confirmed that almost all of this was replacement fencing 64 By the end of Trump s term on January 21 2021 452 miles 727 km had been built at last report by CBP on January 5 much of it replacing outdated or dilapidated existing barriers 65 Contractors and independent efforts Edit As of February 2019 contractors were preparing to construct 600 million worth of replacement barriers along the south Texas Rio Grande Valley section of the border wall approved by Congress in March 2018 66 67 In mid April 2019 former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach visited Coolidge Arizona to observe a demonstration by North Dakota s Fisher Industries of how it would build a border fence The company maintained that it could erect 218 miles of the barrier for 3 3 billion and be able to complete it in 13 months Spin cameras positioned atop the fence would use facial recognition technology and underground fiber optic cables could detect and differentiate between human activity vehicles tunneling and animals as distant as 40 feet away The proposed barrier would be constructed with 42 miles 68 km near Yuma and 91 miles 147 km near Tucson Arizona 69 miles near El Paso Texas and 15 miles 25 km near El Centro California reportedly costing 12 5 million per mile 68 In April 2019 U S Senator Bill Cassidy said that he traveled with the group of politicians and administration officials over the Easter recess to Coolidge 120 miles north of the Mexico border because he felt that insufficient barrier and border enhancements had been erected since Trump became president 68 U S senator Kevin Cramer was also there promoting Fisher Industries which demonstrated the construction of a 56 foot 18 m fence in Coolidge 69 A private organization founded by military veteran Brian Kolfage called We Build the Wall raised over 20 million beginning in 2018 with President Trump s encouragement and with leadership from Kobach and Steve Bannon Over the 2019 Memorial Day weekend the organization constructed a 1 2 to 1 mile weathered steel bollard fence near El Paso on private land adjoining the US Mexico border using 6 8 million of the donated funds Kolfage s organization says it has plans to construct further barriers on private lands adjoining the border in Texas and California 70 71 72 On December 3 2019 a Hidalgo County judge ordered the group to temporarily halt all construction because of its plans to build adjacent to the Rio Grande which a lawyer for the National Butterfly Center argues would create a flooding risk 73 On January 9 2020 a federal judge lifted an injunction allowing a construction firm to move forward with the 3 mile project along the Rio Grande 74 This ended a month long court battle with both the Federal Government and the National Butterfly Center which both tried to block construction efforts Biden administration Edit President Joe Biden signed an executive order 75 on his first day of office January 20 2021 ordering a pause in all construction of the wall no later than January 27 76 The government was given two months to plan how to spend the funds elsewhere and determine how much it would cost to terminate the contracts There are no plans to tear down parts of the wall that have been built 77 The deployment of 3 000 National Guard troops along the border will continue 78 The Biden administration has continued to seize land for construction of the border wall 79 80 By December 2021 many contracts had been cancelled including one requiring the possession of the land of a family represented by the Texas Civil Rights Project 81 In June 2021 Texas governor Greg Abbott announced plans to build a border wall in his state saying that the state would provide 250 million and that direct donations from the public would be solicited 82 83 On June 29 the Republican Study Committee organized a group of two dozen Republican House members to visit a gap in the border where Central Americans were crossing into the country Representative Mary Miller R IL stated that obviously our president has advertised this and facilitated this invasion Rep Jim Banks R IN praised the effectiveness of Trump s wall and said that because of the halted construction thousands of migrants pass through this area on a regular basis because there s an open door that allows them to do that In reference to wristbands on migrants used by Mexican cartels and smugglers to track them Rep Madison Cawthorn R NC stated They re basically treating people like Amazon products There is no care that that is a human being someone who has a soul someone who has unalienable rights that predate any government 84 On July 28 2022 the Biden administration announced it would fill four wide gaps in Arizona near Yuma an area with some of the busiest corridors for illegal crossings 6 Binational River Park Edit In 2021 in collaboration with United States and Mexican ambassadors as well as businessmen a binational park was proposed along the Rio Grande between the border towns of Laredo Texas and Nuevo Laredo Mexico Supported by the No Border Wall Coalition the park aims to create a shared recreational space instead of a border wall Earthjustice estimated that the decision to not build a border wall in Laredo saved 71 miles of river from destruction and over 1 billion in taxpayer dollars 85 86 87 Arizona container wall Edit In August 2022 Arizona Governor Doug Ducey ordered the erection of a makeshift wall of shipping containers on the border with Mexico in Cochise County Arizona The construction began in the Coronado National Forest without authorization from the U S Forest Service which operates the land Ecologists at the Center for Biological Diversity argue that the construction which imperils at risk species including the ocelot and jaguar violates the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and have sued to halt its construction 88 Governor elect Katie Hobbs stated that she would remove the containers after taking office 89 and the U S Justice Department sued the state to remove the containers and compensate the U S for any actions it needs to take to undo Arizona s actions 90 Deconstruction had begun by January 91 Controversy Edit This 2017 fence upgrade at Anapra was planned by the Obama administration Repair work on a section of border fencing in California in 2018 Effectiveness Edit Research at Texas A amp M University and Texas Tech University indicates that the wall like border walls in general is unlikely to be effective at reducing illegal immigration or movement of contraband 92 In mid April 2019 U S Senator Martha McSally said that a barrier will not resolve the border crisis 93 Authors of books on the effectiveness have said that aside from the human crossings drugs among other things will still be making their way to the United States illegally 94 However US Customs and Border Protection has frequently called for more physical barriers on the Mexico United States border citing their efficacy 95 Smugglers in 2021 used demolition tools and power saws on pieces of wall in Arizona 96 Divided land Edit Main article Indigenous conflicts on the Mexico United States barrier Tribal lands of three indigenous nations are divided by a proposed border fence 97 98 On January 27 2008 a Native American human rights delegation in the United States which included Margo Tamez Lipan Apache Jumano Apache and Teresa Leal Opata Mayo reported the removal of the official International Boundary obelisks of 1848 by the U S Department of Homeland Security in the Las Mariposas Sonora Arizona sector of the Mexico U S border 99 100 The obelisks were moved southward approximately 20 m 70 ft onto the property of private landowners in Sonora as part of the larger project of installing the 18 foot 5 5 m steel barrier wall 101 The proposed route for the border fence would divide the campus of the University of Texas at Brownsville into two parts according to Antonio N Zavaleta a vice president of the university 102 There have been campus protests against the wall by students who feel it will harm their school 3 In August 2008 UT Brownsville reached an agreement with the U S Department of Homeland Security for the university to construct a portion of the fence across and adjacent to its property On August 20 2008 the university sent out a request for bids for the construction of a 10 foot 3 0 m high barrier that incorporates technology security for its segment of the border fence project The southern perimeter of the UT Brownsville campus will be part of a laboratory for testing new security technology and infrastructure combinations 103 The border fence segment on the campus was substantially completed by December 2008 104 The SpaceX South Texas Launch Site was shown on a map of the Department of Homeland Security with the barrier cutting through the 50 acre facility 20 ha in Boca Chica Texas 105 Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge Edit On August 1 2018 the chief of the Border Patrol s Rio Grande Valley sector indicated that although Starr County was his first priority for a wall Hidalgo County s Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge had been selected instead for initial construction because its land was owned by the government 106 National Butterfly Center Edit The proposed border wall has been described as a death sentence for the American National Butterfly Center a privately operated outdoor butterfly conservatory that maintains a significant amount of land in Mexico 107 108 106 Filmmaker Krista Schlyer part of an all woman team creating a documentary film about the butterflies and the border wall Ay Mariposa 109 estimates that construction would put 70 percent of the preserve habitat on the Mexican side of the border 110 In addition to concerns about seizure of private property by the federal government 111 center employees have also noted the local economic impact The center s director has stated that environmental tourism contributes more than 450m to Hidalgo and Starr counties 107 In early December 2018 a challenge to wall construction at the National Butterfly Center was rejected by the U S Supreme Court According to the San Antonio Express News the high court let stand an appeals ruling that lets the administration bypass 28 federal laws including the Endangered Species Act the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act 108 Mexico s condemnations Edit See also Mexico United States relations Mexico United States barrier at the pedestrian border crossing in Tijuana In 2006 the Mexican government vigorously condemned the Secure Fence Act of 2006 Mexico has also urged the U S to alter its plans for expanded fences along their shared border saying that it would damage the environment and harm wildlife 112 In 2012 Enrique Pena Nieto was campaigning in Tijuana at the Playas de Monumental less than 600 yards 550 m from the U S Mexico border adjacent to Border Field State Park In one of his speeches he criticized the U S government for building the barriers and asked for them to be removed referencing President Ronald Reagan s Tear down this wall speech from Berlin in 1987 113 Migrant deaths Edit The wall at the border of Tijuana Mexico and San Diego the crosses represent migrants who have died in crossing attempts Between 1994 and 2007 there were around 5 000 migrant deaths along the Mexico United States border according to a document created by the Human Rights National Commission of Mexico also signed by the American Civil Liberties Union 114 Between 43 and 61 people died trying to cross the Sonoran Desert from October 2003 to May 2004 three times that of the same period the previous year 13 In October 2004 the Border Patrol announced that 325 people had died crossing the entire border during the previous 12 months 115 Between 1998 and 2004 1 954 persons are officially reported to have died along the Mexico U S border Since 2004 the bodies of 1 086 migrants have been recovered in the southern Arizona desert 116 U S Border Patrol Tucson Sector reported on October 15 2008 that its agents were able to save 443 illegal immigrants from certain death after being abandoned by their smugglers The agents also reducing the number of deaths by 17 from 202 in 2007 to 167 in 2008 Without the efforts of these agents hundreds more could have died in the deserts of Arizona 117 According to the same sector border enhancements like the wall have allowed the Tucson Sector agents to reduce the number of apprehensions at the borders by 16 compared with 2007 118 Environmental impact Edit See also Environmental issues along the Mexico United States border The Gulf Coast jaguarundi is already threatened by extinction In April 2008 the Department of Homeland Security announced plans to waive more than 30 environmental and cultural laws to speed construction of the barrier Despite claims from then Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff that the department would minimize the construction s impact on the environment critics in Arizona New Mexico and Texas asserted that the fence endangered species and fragile ecosystems along the Rio Grande Environmentalists expressed concern about butterfly migration corridors and the future of species of local wildcats the ocelot the jaguarundi and the jaguar 119 120 By August 2008 more than 90 of the southern border in Arizona and New Mexico had been surveyed In addition 80 of the California Mexico border has been surveyed 121 About 100 species of plants and animals many already endangered are threatened by the wall including the jaguar ocelot Sonoran pronghorn Mexican wolf a pygmy owl the thick billed parrot and the Quino checkerspot butterfly According to Scott Egan of Rice University a wall can create a population bottleneck increase inbreeding and cut off natural migration routes and range expansion 122 123 In 2008 a resolution based on sound and accurate scientific knowledge expressing opposition to the wall and the harmful impact on several rare threatened and endangered species particularly endangered mammals such as the jaguar ocelot jaguarondi and Sonoran pronghorn was published by The Southwestern Association of Naturalists an organization of 791 scientists specializing in the zoology botany and ecology of southwestern USA and Mexico 124 A decade later in 2018 well over 2500 scientists from 43 countries published a statement opposing the Border Wall affirming it will have significant consequences for biodiversity and Already built sections of the wall are reducing the area quality and connectivity of plant and animal habitats and are compromising more than a century of binational investment in conservation 125 An initial 75 mile 121 km wall for which U S funding has been requested on the nearly 2 000 mile 3 200 km mile border would pass through the Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge in California the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge and Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge 126 in Texas and Mexico s Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that the U S is bound by global treaty to protect 127 The U S Customs and Border Protection plans to build the wall using the Real ID Act to avoid the process of making environmental impact statements a strategy devised by Chertoff during the Bush administration Reuters said The Real ID Act also allows the secretary of Homeland Security to exempt CBP from adhering to the Endangered Species Act which would otherwise prohibit construction in a wildlife refuge 128 Polling EditA Rasmussen Reports poll from August 19 2015 found that 51 supported building a wall on the border while 37 opposed 129 In a January 2017 study conducted by the Pew Research Center 39 of Americans identified construction of a U S Mexico border wall as an important goal for U S immigration policy The survey found that while Americans were divided by party on many different immigration policies the widest partisan split by far is over building a southern border wall Two thirds of Republicans and Republican leaning independents 67 say construction of a wall on the U S Mexico border is an important goal for immigration policy compared with just 16 percent of Democrats and Democratic leaners 130 A survey conducted by the National Border Patrol Council found that 89 of border patrol agents said a wall system in strategic locations is necessary to securing the border 7 of agents disagreed 131 A poll conducted by CBS in June 21 22 2018 found that 51 supported the border wall while 48 opposed 132 A poll conducted by the Senate Opportunity Fund in March of 2021 found that 53 supported finishing construction of the border wall while 38 opposed 133 See also Edit Architecture portal Politics portal Mexico portal United States portalMexico United States border Mexico United States border crisis List of Mexico United States border crossings United States Border Patrol interior checkpoints Roosevelt Reservation List of walls Open border Tortilla Wall Border barrier Separation barrier Guatemala Mexico border Israeli West Bank barrier Egypt Israel barrier Hungarian border barrierReferences EditFootnotes Privately suggested by Obama s successor Republican Donald Trump 35 Citations Garcia Michael John November 18 2016 Barriers Along the U S Borders Key Authorities and Requirements PDF Washington DC Congressional Research Service Retrieved December 9 2016 Chaichian Mohammad 2014 Empires and Walls Globalization Migration and Colonial Domination Brill pp 175 235 a b The Border Fence NOW on PBS a b Farley Robert May 16 2011 Obama says the border fence is now basically complete Politifact Retrieved July 27 2019 Farley Robert February 16 2021 Trump s Border Wall Where Does It Stand FactCheck org Retrieved June 13 2021 a b Biden administration to fill border wall gaps near Yuma Arizona NBC News Retrieved July 30 2022 The Wall How long is the U S Mexico border USA TODAY Retrieved January 13 2019 a b Sapp Lesley July 2011 Apprehensions by the U S Border Patrol 2005 2010 Office of Immigration Studies United States Department of Homeland Security Washington D C Retrieved November 18 2011 Peter Holley Trump proposes a border wall But there already is one and it gets climbed over Washington Post April 2 2016 U S Homeland Security secretary has elbow room on building border wall Homeland Preparedness News April 5 2017 Retrieved April 21 2017 Southwest Border Migration FY 2020 Department of Homeland Security February 11 2020 Retrieved February 15 2020 What s happening at the U S Mexico border in 5 charts Pew Research Center Retrieved April 8 2020 a b c Border Desert Proves Deadly For Mexicans The New York Times May 23 2004 One Nation Under Fire High Country News February 19 2007 US States That Border Mexico 1 John Rachel St The Raging Controversy at the Border Began With This Incident 100 Years Ago Smithsonian Magazine a b This is how much of the border wall has been built so far WSYM January 19 2019 Retrieved April 8 2019 McPhail Weldon Assistant Director Administration of Justice Issues Dennise R Stickley Evaluator David P Alexander Social Science Analyst Washington DC Appendix I 1 Michael P Dino Evaluator in Charge James R Russell Evaluator LA Regional Office Appendix I 2 Border Control Revised Strategy Is Showing Some Positive Results Subcommittee on Information Justice Transportation and Agriculture Committee on Government Operations House of Representatives December 29 1994 Pike John Operation Gatekeeper Operation Hold the Line Operation Safeguard Gamboa Suzanne September 15 2006 House Approves U S Mexican Border Fence The Washington Post ISSN 0190 8286 Retrieved August 7 2019 Laredo border fence offers possible comparisons Valley Morning Star Archived from the original on February 28 2019 Retrieved July 29 2019 Hunter proposal for strategic border fencing passes House 2005 Archived from the original on October 6 2006 Retrieved October 10 2006 109th Congress Public Law 367 gpo gov Retrieved January 15 2017 ABC News Bush Signs U S Mexico Border Fence Bill Archived from the original on November 21 2007 Retrieved October 26 2006 U S Senate U S Senate Roll Call Votes 109th Congress 2nd Session FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 446 H R 6061 RECORDED VOTE 14 Sep 2006 3 41 PM QUESTION On Passage BILL TITLE Secure Fence Act of 2006 clerk house gov Rechaza gobernador de Texas muro fronterizo in Spanish Retrieved March 7 2006 James Rowley U S Mexico Border Fence Plan Will Be Revisited By Congress Bloomberg January 17 2007 Kahn Carrie July 8 2006 Immigration Debate Divides Laredo NPR Retrieved September 28 2007 Billing Code 4410 10 Department of Homeland Security PDF Thomas M Wilson Hastings Donnan June 11 2012 A Companion to Border Studies John Wiley amp Sons p 379 ISBN 978 1 4051 9893 6 Archibold Randal C January 17 2009 Border Plan Will Address Harm Done at Fence Site The New York Times Retrieved March 27 2010 U S Plans Border Surge Against Any Drug Wars The New York Times January 7 2009 a b Hsu Spencer S March 16 2010 Work to cease on virtual fence along U S Mexico border The Washington Post Shear Michael D Davis Julie Hirschfeld October 1 2019 Shoot Them in the Legs Trump Suggested Inside His Border War The New York Times Retrieved October 1 2019 2012 Republican Party Platform PDF The Republican National Convention Retrieved September 24 2012 Weisman Jonathan September 30 2006 With Senate Vote Congress Passes Border Fence Bill The Washington Post Budget in Brief PDF United States Department of Homeland Security 2006 Isaacson Adam 2013 A budget busting proposal in the Republican platform Border Facts Separating Rhetoric from Reality Retrieved October 2 2019 Annie Linskey In 2006 Democrats were saying build that fence Boston Globe January 27 2017 GAO February 2017 p 9 Donald Trump We will build Mexico border wall BBC News January 26 2016 Retrieved January 26 2016 How realistic is Donald Trump s Mexico wall BBC News January 26 2016 Retrieved January 26 2016 Quien se mueve si sale en la foto Excelsior in Spanish March 7 2016 Retrieved January 25 2017 Davis Julie Hirschfeld January 25 2017 Trump Orders Mexican Border Wall to Be Built and Is Expected to Block Syrian Refugees The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved January 26 2017 Jack Goodman Micah Luxen January 5 2019 Trump s wall How much has been built so far BBC com Retrieved February 17 2019 Government Shutdown 2018 Latest Updates amp Reaction Politico December 27 2018 Retrieved December 28 2018 Del Real Jose May 24 2019 Federal Judge Blocks Part of Trump s Plan to Build Border Wall The New York Times Retrieved May 25 2019 U S judge expands ban on constructing sections of Trump s border wall in Calif Ariz while also clearing way for quick appeal The Washington Post Retrieved June 28 2019 Kanno Youngs Zolan July 3 2019 Appeals Court Upholds Ruling Blocking Trump From Using Defense Funds for Border Wall The New York Times Retrieved July 5 2019 Liptak Adam July 26 2019 Supreme Court Lets Trump Proceed on Border Wall The New York Times New York City Retrieved July 28 2019 Read Letter announcing decision to divert military funds for Trump s border wall CNN September 3 2019 Retrieved September 3 2019 a b Cohen Zachary Browne Ryan September 3 2019 Pentagon diverts 3 6 billion in military construction funds to build Trump s border wall CNN Retrieved September 3 2019 Samuels Brett October 15 2019 Trump again vetoes resolution blocking national emergency for border wall TheHill Retrieved October 16 2019 Alvarez Priscilla October 11 2019 Federal judge says Trump s use of emergency funds to build wall is unlawful CNN Retrieved October 12 2019 Alvarez Priscilla Kelly Caroline December 10 2019 Federal judge blocks use of billions of dollars in Pentagon funds to build border wall CNN Retrieved December 14 2019 Alvarez Priscilla LeBlanc Paul January 8 2020 Appeals court allows use of 3 6 billion in military funds for border wall CNN Retrieved January 8 2020 Giaritelli Anna July 20 2019 Trump has not built a single mile of new border fence after 30 months in office Washington Examiner Retrieved July 23 2019 Valverde Miriam August 30 2019 Border wall under way It s replacement fencing PolitiFact Retrieved September 2 2019 450 miles of border wall by next year In Arizona it starts AP News September 12 2019 Retrieved December 20 2019 Norman Greg August 26 2019 Border Patrol releases drone footage showing miles of new wall system being built Fox News Retrieved September 2 2019 Miroff Nick Dawsey Josh September 19 2019 Trump officials considering plan to divert billions of dollars in additional funds for border barrier The Washington Post Retrieved September 22 2019 Lemire Jonathan June 23 2020 Watch Trump visits Arizona to mark construction of 200 miles of wall along U S Mexico border PBS NewsHour Retrieved June 24 2020 Eltohamy Farah June 23 2020 Trump in Yuma to mark 216 miles of border wall still a work in progress Cronkite News Arizona PBS Retrieved July 16 2020 Border Wall System Wayback Machine archive of U S Customs and Border Protection January 21 2021 Archived from the original on January 21 2021 Retrieved June 11 2021 Spagat Elliot Mascaro Lisa March 23 2018 AP News Guide Trump gets wishes on border wall sort of AP News Retrieved April 10 2019 Merchant Nomaan February 4 2019 US prepares to start building portion of Texas border wall AP NEWS Retrieved February 8 2019 a b Kris Kobach and fellow border hawks join Army Corps in Arizona to see company s border fence proposal Washington Examiner Anna Giaritelli April 16 2019 Retrieved April 19 2019 ND company demonstrates building border wall Minot Daily News Eloise Ogden April 19 2019 Retrieved April 19 2019 Catherine E Shoichet Leyla Santiago Devon M Sayers Jeremy Diamond and Rosa Flores A private group says it s started building its own border wall using millions donated in GoFundMe campaign CNN 28 May 2019 Private group unveils crowd funded border wall despite legal hurdles abc news Retrieved May 30 2019 Camacho Marian Construction on private border wall continues KOB 30 May 2019 Armus Teo December 4 2019 Right wing group must stop building private border wall in South Texas judge says in temporary order The Washington Post Retrieved December 4 2019 Langford Cameron January 10 2020 Judge clears way for construction of private US Mexico border fence Tucson Sentinel Retrieved January 10 2020 Proclamation on the Termination Of Emergency With Respect To The Southern Border Of The United States And Redirection Of Funds Diverted To Border Wall Construction The White House January 21 2021 Retrieved March 31 2021 Biden halts border wall building after Trump s final surge AP NEWS January 21 2021 Retrieved January 29 2021 Aldridge Bailey January 26 2021 The future of Trump s border wall What we know after Biden halts construction The News amp Observer Retrieved January 29 2021 I m going to make sure that we have border protection but it s going to be based on making sure that we use high tech capacity to deal with it at the ports of entry Myers Meghann January 26 2021 The border emergency is canceled but thousands of troops there aren t scheduled to go home Military Times Retrieved January 29 2021 Kumar Anita April 15 2021 Biden promised to stop seizing border wall land His DOJ is still doing it Politico Retrieved April 17 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link Lonas Lexi April 15 2021 Biden administration still seizing land near border despite plans to stop building wall report The Hill Retrieved April 17 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link Alvarez Priscilla December 7 2021 Border land returned to Texas family after it was seized for wall CNN Retrieved December 26 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link Guzman Joseph June 17 2021 Texas governor unveils 250M for hundreds of miles of new border wall The Hill Retrieved June 26 2021 Choi Joseph June 15 2021 Abbott says he ll solicit public donations for border wall The Hill Retrieved June 26 2021 Wong Scott June 30 2021 I want to cry House Republicans take emotional trip to the border The Hill Retrieved July 2 2021 It s Over The Border Wall in Laredo is Officially Dead Earthjustice October 8 2021 Retrieved March 31 2022 Instead of a Wall a Binational Park To Be Built on Border of Texas amp Mexico Good Good Good March 30 2022 Retrieved March 31 2022 Overland Partners to Design a 6 3 mile Park On the US Mexico Border ArchDaily March 25 2022 Retrieved March 31 2022 Main Douglas December 7 2022 A rogue barrier threatens wildlife on Arizona border National Geographic Retrieved December 9 2022 del Bosque Melissa Gov Ducey s Illegal Shipping Container Wall is Worse Than You Can Imagine www theborderchronicle com Retrieved December 9 2022 Romine Taylor December 14 2022 DOJ sues Arizona for placing shipping containers at the border CNN Retrieved December 15 2022 Arizona s makeshift border wall is coming down BBC News January 4 2023 Retrieved January 4 2023 Gabbatiss Josh February 17 2019 Trump s border wall will not work no matter how high scientists warn The Independent Archived from the original on May 12 2022 Retrieved April 10 2019 Wall supporter Martha McSally says more barrier won t end border crisis Washington Examiner Anna Giaritelli April 17 2019 Retrieved April 19 2019 Felbab Brown Vanda August 22 2017 The Wall The Real Costs of a Barrier between the United States and Mexico Brookings Institution Press ISBN 978 0 8157 3295 2 Border Patrol Makes Its Case For An Expanded Border Barrier NPR January 11 2019 Retrieved April 8 2019 Grim summer for migrant deaths feared The Gazette Cedar Rapids Iowa 3 June 6 2021 p 9A via newspapers com O odham tell U N rapporteur of struggles Indian Country October 31 2005 As Border Crackdown Intensifies A Tribe Is Caught in the Crossfire Washington Post September 15 2006 Nogales Residents Say US is Building Border Wall on Mexico s Land the narcosphere Archived from the original on May 6 2008 Retrieved April 29 2008 Monuments Manifest Destiny and Mexico August 15 2016 Nogales Residents Say US is Building Border Wall on Mexico s Land Narcosphere narconews com Archived from the original on May 15 2009 Retrieved March 27 2010 Some Texans Fear Border Fence Will Sever Routine of Daily Life New York Times June 20 2007 Bids Requested for Fence Upgrade The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College August 20 2008 Sieff Kevin December 12 2008 Friendly Fence Brownsville Herald Archived from the original on July 22 2012 Retrieved March 27 2010 Wasson Erik February 9 2019 Trump border wall could split SpaceX s Texas launchpad in two Bloomberg Retrieved March 31 2019 via Los Angeles Times a b del Bosque Melissa August 4 2017 National Butterfly Center Founder Trump s Border Wall Prep Trampling on Private Property Rights The Texas Observer Retrieved December 18 2018 a b Gilbert Samuel December 13 2018 Death sentence butterfly sanctuary to be bulldozed for Trump s border wall The Guardian ISSN 0261 3077 Retrieved December 18 2018 a b Foster Frau Silvia December 6 2018 Bulldozers to soon plow through National Butterfly Center for Trump s border wall San Antonio Express News Retrieved December 18 2018 Ay Mariposa Film Indiegogo Retrieved December 18 2018 Heimbuch Jaymi December 11 2018 All women film team takes on border wall on behalf of all at risk wildlife Mother Nature Network Retrieved December 18 2018 Guerra Luciano December 17 2018 I voted for Trump Now his wall may destroy my butterfly paradise Perspective Washington Post Retrieved April 10 2019 US border fences an eco danger BBC News July 31 2007 Retrieved March 27 2010 Borders The Fence The Semantics of a Border Barrier apps cndls georgetown edu Retrieved January 7 2019 El Universal de Mexico Spanish Retrieved November 9 2007 Border deaths of illegal migrants cause concern New Matilda The Long Graveyard CBP Border Patrol Announces Fiscal Year 2008 Achievements for Tucson Sector Archived from the original on November 30 2009 Tucson Sector Makes Significant Gains in 2008 Archived from the original on July 22 2012 Marosi Richard Gaouette Nicole April 2 2008 Border fence will skirt environmental laws Los Angeles Times Archived from the original on April 14 2008 Retrieved March 27 2010 Border Wall Could Threaten Northern Jaguar July 5 2017 U S Customs and Border Protection Cbp gov September 28 2005 Retrieved March 27 2010 Ruth David August 3 2017 Border wall would put more than 100 endangered species at risk says expert Phys org Science X Network Retrieved August 4 2017 Greenwald Noah et al May 2017 A Wall In the Wild PDF Center for Biological Diversity Retrieved August 3 2017 Southwestern Association of Naturalists SWAN 2008 Resolution on the US Mexico Border Fence Peters Robert et al 2018 Nature Divided Scientists United US Mexico Border Wall Threatens Biodiversity and Binational Conservation BioScience 68 10 740 743 Barclay Eliza Frostenson Sarah July 26 2017 The ecological disaster that is Trump s border wall a visual guide Vox Vox Media Retrieved August 6 2017 Uhlemann Sarah August 3 2017 Commentary Trump s border wall endangers wildlife refuges World Heritage sites San Diego Union Tribune Retrieved August 6 2017 Flitter Emily July 21 2017 Trump administration seeks to sidestep border wall environmental study sources Reuters Thomson Reuters Retrieved August 4 2017 Voters Want to Build A Wall Deport Felon Illegal Immigrants rasmussenreports com August 19 2015 Retrieved February 18 2022 Suls Rob January 6 2017 Less than half the public views border wall as an important goal for U S immigration policy Pew Research Center Archived from the original on January 28 2019 Retrieved January 27 2019 Dinan Stephen April 2 2018 Border Patrol agents overwhelmingly support Trump s wall in new survey The Washington Times Archived from the original on April 2 2019 Retrieved April 2 2019 CBS Poll 51 Of Americans Support Border Wall Major Support For Family Deportations abcstlouis com June 25 2018 Retrieved February 17 2022 Support for border wall surges as border crisis intensifies March 23 2021 Retrieved February 17 2022 Further reading EditChaichian Mohammad 2014 Empires and Walls Globalization Migration and Colonial Domination Brill pp 175 235 Border Security Barriers Along the U S International Border Congressional Research Service Gerstein Josh July 26 2019 Supreme Court gives Trump go ahead on border wall Politico The High Cost and Diminishing Returns of a Border WallExternal links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to US Mexico barrier Border Wall System CBP gov This Is What the U S Mexico Border Wall Actually Looks Like National Geographic Society US Mexico Border Barriers Historical Timeline and Summary Statistics Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Mexico United States barrier amp oldid 1131823829, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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