Another 'Mission Accomplished' on the Border?

In 2006, both the House and Senate passed Comprehensive Immigration Reform bills.  Each contained hundreds of miles of border wall, inserted as a bone to lure conservative support.  The bills differed on a number of points, including the number of miles of wall to be built.  When a conference committee convened to craft a final bill they were unable to work out their differences, and immigration reform died in committee.  From its ashes Congress pulled the one thing that they could agree on: 700 miles of border wall.  

The stated goal of the Secure Fence Act was to "achieve and maintain operational control over the entire international land and maritime borders of the United States."  Nearly 3 years later, most of the border walls that it mandated are complete. Time to dust off the "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" banner and hang it on the border?

Apparently not.  This month Senator Jim DeMint, whose home state of South Carolina is closer to Canada than Mexico, inserted an amendment into the Senate’s bill funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  It changes the Secure Fence Act to say that, "Fencing that does not effectively restrain pedestrian traffic (such as vehicle barriers and virtual fencing) may not be used to meet the 700-mile fence requirement."  

As of July 17, DHS claims to have completed 331 miles of "pedestrian fencing" and 302 miles of vehicle barriers.  If DeMint’s amendment makes it through the House/Senate Conference Committee and is signed into law, the border wall will suddenly be 369 miles short of its new mandate.  DHS will probably replace many of the 302 miles of vehicle barriers with "pedestrian fence," inflicting tremendous environmental damage in the process.  That leaves at least 67 miles of brand new border wall to be built in places that are currently unwalled.  With California, Arizona, and New Mexico largely walled off, those new border walls will most likely be built in Texas.

So far, Congress has given the Department of Homeland Security $3.1 billion for border wall construction.  The Army Corps of Engineers reported that between February and October of 2008 the cost of building walls increased by 88%, from an average of $3.5 million per mile to $7.5 million per mile.  Some sections of border wall are particularly expensive:  the levee-border wall combination in South Texas averaged $12 million per mile; in California, a 3.5 mile section that involved filling in canyons cost taxpayers $57 million.  

If the Secure Fence Act succeeded in achieving "operational control" of the border, why should we spend no less than (and quite possibly a lot more than) $2,767,500,000.00 to build 369 miles of new border wall?

First and foremost, the border wall has failed to stop either immigrants or smugglers from entering the United States.   The majority enter through ports of entry, rather than crossing the desert on foot or the Rio Grande on an inner tube, so walls erected between the ports have no effect on them.  And according to the Border Patrol, even those who find the wall directly in their path are only slowed down by around 5 minutes.  As Border Patrol spokesperson Mike Scioli said,

"The border fence is a speed bump in the desert."

Professor Wayne Cornelius, with the University of California at San Diego, has spent more than a decade interviewing immigrants before and after they cross the border.   His research has revealed that, even with border walls,

"fewer than half of migrants who come to the border are apprehended, even once, by the Border Patrol. ... [T]he apprehension rate found in these studies varied from 24% to 47%. And of those who are caught, all but a tiny minority eventually get through – between 92 and 98 percent, depending on the community of origin. If migrants do not succeed on the first try, they almost certainly will succeed on the second or third try."

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