US-Mexico Border Wall: Everything You Need to Know

One of the core campaign issues by the Trump administration was the US-Mexico border wall. According to President Trump, the porous border was the leading cause of increased drug trafficking and immigrants in the USA. The Trump administration has sought billions of dollars to construct the border wall. Nonetheless, the government has not built any wall. Instead, it is replacing the old barriers and building secondary fences. However, this increased sentiment on constructing a border wall between the USA and Mexico symbolizes anti-immigration views. The USA has always considered itself as being the most democratic nation in the world. The Statue of Liberty represents democracy, and the construction of the wall is contrary to what it symbolizes. During the early years, the USA had an "open-door policy" that allowed immigrants to flow steadily. Millions of immigrants entered the country between 1820-1880 (Abramitzky & Boustan, 2017). However, in 1882, the USA Congress began worrying about the rise in immigrant numbers, which saw it passing laws such as the Immigrant Act of 1882. (Abramitzky & Boustan, 2017)). With time, the Native Americans began railing against the increasing number of immigrants. Other acts, such as the 1924 Immigration Act, were passed to prevent illegal entry into the USA (Abramitzky & Boustan, 2017)). The political climate at the time aimed at curbing immigrants by preserving the ideal idea of USA homogeneity. The passage of these acts led to increased rates of demonstrations and protests by the oppressed groups. As for the Native Americans, they developed xenophobic attitudes. The political climate during the early years of the USA has significant similarities to the anti-immigrant sentiments supported by the Trump administration. This is evident from the 66% support offered by Trump supporters who view immigration as being a "huge problem." The increased "danger" brought by immigrants, as argued by President Trump, lacks factual support. This rhetoric displays increased right-wing nationalism, nativism, and isolation in the USA. Moreover, similar anti-immigrant sentiments have continued to grow in European nations such as Germany, Austria, Hungary, Denmark, and the Czech Republic. (Van Ramshorst, 2018). On the other hand, the core argument against immigration is that there are millions of illegal immigrants in the USA. The Trump administration argues that the only way to protect the USA from immigrants is by constructing a border wall to enable immigration laws to work. However, several studies show that building a wall shall not in any way help to address the reason why there are millions of illegal immigrants in the country. According to a recent study, more than 59% of the Americans do not favor the construction of the wall (Newreport, 2019). They argue that a substantial number of illegal immigrants do not use the border to get into the USA. More than 40 million of the undocumented immigrants living in America entered the nation legally (Hirschman, 2014). President Trump has argued that cities near Mexico with wall barriers are very safe. However, at El Paso, despite constructing an 18-foot high steel wall, violent crime levels remain the same. Another argument by Trump is that the wall shall help reduce drug trafficking into the USA. This is contrary to the Drug and Law Enforcement Agency that has continually cited drugs get into the country via legal ports, and a wall shall not aid in anything. The Democrats have argued that the barrier shall not help in protecting the border as the country can use other options such as mobile surveillance trucks, thermal cameras, and motion sensors. This is contrary to the Republicans who argue that the wall is necessary. Trump has even gone ahead and held the country hostage by not signing crucial bills and calling for a national emergency to ensure he obtains $8 billion to fund the construction of the wall. The construction of border walls has become a common practice in various nations such as the European Union, South Africa, Israel, Thailand, the USA, and India (Jones, 2012). The primary justification for building the walls is to act as security defenses between bordering nations. However, the internal politics within a country lay down a platform for the justification of constructing border walls. There are three main reasons why a nation aims at building a border wall, protecting a nation from the influence of immigrants, protecting a nation's population and wealth, and establishing sovereignty over unruly or ungoverned lands (Jones, 2012). In the case of the USA, the policy decision to construct a 650-mile border wall between it and Mexico is to curb drug trafficking and illegal immigration. The Trump administration has argued that increased illegal immigration in the USA is affecting the native citizens. However, in the USA, the threat possessed by illegal immigrants is as old as the nation itself. At different periods through the USA history, Italians, Chinese, and Irish were considered as being a threat to the country (Jones, 2012). Most people cited that illegal immigrants took over employment opportunities as they offered cheap labor. In modern America, similar sentiments are aired by the Trump administration. The construction of the wall aims at showing that the USA has sovereignty over its borders (Jones, 2012). This shows the United States has the right to protect its economic privileges and its native citizens from adopting social systems deemed as being "non-American”. Moreover, the Trump administration argues that the border wall shall help in stemming the flow of illegal drugs into the USA. The argument is that a majority of drug traffickers use the porous borders to smuggle drugs. However, with the wall, they will be forced to use the ports where there are more law enforcement officials. President Trump has stated that drug trafficking is affecting millions of USA citizens. The US-Mexican land border accounts for the entry of more than 90 percent of the cocaine in the USA (Puyana, Puyana, Rubiano, Montenegro, Estebanez, Sanchez, & Vega-Rivera, 2017). Cocaine use in the USA has become a significant public health concern. Despite the decline in cocaine use between 2005-2011, its prevalence has continued to rise among young adolescents aged >12 years (John & Wu, 2017). In 2015, more than 968,000 adolescents aged 12 and above used cocaine representing 20% from 2011 (John & Wu, 2017). Cocaine related deaths have also increased to more than 6880 (John & Wu, 2017). Cocaine is negatively affecting USA citizens, especially the younger generation. Recent strategies to curb the flow of cocaine in the nation have continually failed. The Trump administration believes that this policy action is the key to winning the war on drugs. The USA is Mexico's third-leading trading partner after China and Canada. In 2019, the trade between the USA and Mexico amounted to $671.1 billion (US$299.2 billion for exports and US$371.9 billion for imports). (Office of the United States Trade Representative, 2019) The construction of the border wall is bound to affect the flow of goods and services between the USA and Mexico. The millions of Mexican shoppers purchasing products from the USA will not have the chance and vice versa. Moreover, Mexican towns relying on tourists from the USA shall end up suffering from substantial economic losses. Initially, the Rio Grande River was a significant obstacle towards constructing a wall between the USA and Mexico. The new border wall is expected to intrude into the Rio Grande River heavily. The US Customs and Border Protection canceled the construction of the bollard border wall in 2008, along with Roma city and Los Ebanos located in Rio Grande City (Department of Homeland Security, 2010). The primary concern was that this would lead to flooding and deflection. In the event of a rainstorm, the water that drains into the river from nearby communities would become dammed. In case the water from the Rio Grande exceeds the wall's barriers, it would flow into Mexico and flood cities such as Ciudad Aleman (Department of Homeland Security, 2010). More importantly, the construction of the border wall shall have negative economic implications for the USA. Currently, the Trump administration has used more than $2.3 billion in constructing and repairing the wall (Deeds & Whiteford, 2019). In addition, the administration is expected to use more than $500 million annually as maintenance costs (Deeds & Whiteford, 2019). The cost of building the border is bound to vary between $6 –$16 million depending on the wall design, land costs, terrain, and building materials (Deeds & Whiteford, 2019). President Trump has continually stated there is a need to increase the height of the border, all of which will cost taxpayers an additional $12 billion (Deeds & Whiteford, 2019). Nonetheless, there are no apparent means of how the wall construction is going to be paid for; it is still under debate. There have been calls by the President for the Mexican government to cater to all costs of which the latter has refuted. The President has increased taxation on Mexican imports by 20%, and this affects USA consumers (Deeds & Whiteford, 2017). Such measures employed by the Trump governments are ineffective and punitive as it is the USA economy and citizens who will suffer in the end. The construction of the wall is bound to affect wildlife parks and refuges. In 2005, Congress passed the REAL ID act following the 2001 September 11 attacks (Roche, Millis, Gordon, Krakoff, & Burt, 2017). These acts grant Homeland Security to overstep any law in the name of national security. As a result, there have been proposals to pass the wall through various wildlife conservation parks in Texas, including Big Bend National Park, the National Butterfly Centre, and San Ana National Park (Roche, Millis, Gordon, Krakoff, & Burt, 2017). This indicates the construction of the wall shall overrule more than 30 federal environmental laws, making it unconstitutional. The funding and construction of the border wall come with high social costs. The social costs are bound to affect people disproportionally. The thousands of families living in Mexico and across USA cities will suffer from negative social costs. The wall has forced hundreds of thousands of people wanting to meet their families to migrate through harsher areas within the borderlands. This has led to increased deaths and injuries. Between 1990 and 2014, more than 2500 bodies were found along the Arizona migration route (Deeds & Whiteford, 2017). There have been thousands filed as missing by families in the USA. In most cases, migrants have given traumatic stories of their journey into the USA. The militarization of the border is only going to increase the suffering of the migrants, whose main aim is reunification with their families. Similarly, the construction of the border al has brought about increased xenophobic attitudes and racism in the USA, especially among Republicans. Since his campaigns, President Trump voiced a need for building a wall between the USA and Mexico to curb immigration. Recent polls indicate that a large number of Republican supporters have adopted anti-immigrant sentiments (Reich, 2019). A significant number of Republican-led states have begun implementing stringent immigration policies, as they believe that they are at a higher risk of losing their identity as Americans because of immigrants. (Reich, 2019). A significant number of Mexican immigrants have felt that they are not legal Americans despite having the required documentation. They live in fear of being deported back to their countries and even separated from families. Moreover, this has led to increased violence against Latinos and other minority groups. The USA, which was once a democratic nation, has now become a place whereby the color of your skin determines whether one, will get proper employment, health services, and college and university appointment or get justice when seeking the services of the justice system. The anti-immigrant sentiments have not only affected the Latinos but also the African-Americans who suffer from the wrath of police brutality. The calls for constructing a border wall have brought about negative social consequences. The most common ones are the increased xenophobic and racist attacks against minority groups in the USA. According to Roche et al. (2017), Tohono O’odham the second-largest reservation in the USA. The construction of the border wall is going to affect this tribal land negatively. The Department of Homeland has been accused of not providing detailed information on how the border wall is going to prevent smuggling of drugs into the nation. Building a border wall across the tribal land is going to stop the Tohono O’odham people from accessing sacred sites or visiting community members and relatives (Roche et al., 2017). The federal government must respect and safeguard the interest of native communities. However, with the recent moves, it indicates the government does not care about the traditions and culture of its people.

References

Abramitzky, R., & Boustan, L. (2017). Immigration in American economic history.  Journal of Economic Literature,  55 (4), 1311-45.

Deeds, C., & Whiteford, S. (2017). The Social and Economic Costs of Trump’s Wall’.  Voice of Mexico. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/19d6/936cb5c2bf8380252ffdbaf66d973b8b97e7.pdf 

Department of Homeland Security (2010). FY18 Rio Grande Valley Sector New Border Wall System. Retrieved from https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/0073_bw11_foia_cbp_006482_-_006682.pdf 

Hirschman, C. (2014). Immigration to the United States: Recent trends and future prospects.  Malaysian journal of economic studies: journal of the Malaysian Economic Association and the Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya,  51 (1), 69.

John, W. S., & Wu, L. T. (2017). Trends and correlates of cocaine use and cocaine use disorder in the United States from 2011 to 2015.  Drug and alcohol dependence,  180, 376-384.

Jones, R. (2012). Why build a border wall?  NACLA Report on the Americas,  45 (3), 70-72.

Newport, F. (2019).  The Gallup poll: Public opinion 2016. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.

Office of the United States Trade Representative. (2019). Mexico: US-Mexico trade facts. Retrieved from https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/americas/mexico 

Puyana, J. C., Puyana, J. C. J., Rubiano, A. M., Montenegro, J. H., Estebanez, G. O., Sanchez, A. I., & Vega-Rivera, F. (2017). Drugs, Violence, and Trauma in Mexico and the USA.  Medical principles and practice,  26 (4), 309-315.

Reich, G. (2018). Hitting a Wall? The Trump Administration Meets Immigration Federalism.  Publius: The Journal of Federalism,  48 (3), 372-395.

Roche, D., Millis, D., Gordon, A., Krakoff, S., & Burt, S. (2017). Environmental impacts of the border wall.  Envtl. L. Rep. News & Analysis,  47, 10477.

Van Ramshorst, J. P. (2018). Anti-immigrant sentiment, rising populism, and Oaxaca Trump. Journal of Latin American Geography ,  17 (1), 253-256.