The Mexico–United States border wall (Spanish: muro fronterizo Estados Unidos–México) 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]
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) said it had 649 miles (1,044 km) of barriers in place.[4] An additional 52 miles (84 km) of primary barriers were built during Donald Trump's presidency, though Trump had repeatedly promised a "giant wall" spanning the entire border.[5] The national border's length is 1,954 miles (3,145 km), of which 1,255 miles (2,020 km) is the Rio Grande[6] and 699 miles (1,125 km) is on land. 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.[7] In October 2023, Biden announced that he was restarting wall construction due to the surge of migrant crossings, constructing an additional 20 miles of border wall.[8]
The 1,954 miles (3,145 km) border between the U.S. and Mexico traverses a variety of terrain, including urban areas and deserts.[9] The border from the Gulf of Mexico to El Paso, Texas, follows the Rio Grande, a natural barrier. The barrier is on both urban and uninhabited sections of the border, where the most illegal crossings and drug trafficking have been observed in the past. These urban areas include San Diego, California, and El Paso, Texas.[10] The fencing includes a steel fence (varying in height between 18 and 27 feet (4.8 and 8.1 meters)) that divides the border towns of Nogales, Arizona, in the U.S. and Nogales, Sonora, in Mexico.[11]
97% of border apprehensions (foreign nationals caught in the U.S. illegally) by the Border Patrol in 2010 occurred at the southwest border. The number declined 61% from 1,189,000 in 2005 to 723,842 in 2008 to 463,000 in 2010. The decrease in apprehensions is 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.[10][12] Total apprehensions for 2017, 2018, and 2019 were 415,517, 521,090, and 977,509, respectively.[13] And while the barrier is along the border with Mexico, 80% of those apprehended are not Mexican.[14]
As a result of the barrier, the number of people trying to cross in areas that have no fence, such as the Sonoran Desert and the Baboquivari Mountains in Arizona, has increased.[15] Such immigrants must cross 50 miles (80 km) of inhospitable terrain to reach the first road, which is in the Tohono Oʼodham Indian Reservation.[15][16]
The Mexico–U.S. 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 and the U.S. states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.[17]
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Territorial exchanges in the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) and the Gadsden Purchase (1853) largely established the current U.S.–Mexico border. Until the early 20th century, the border was open and largely unpatrolled, with only a few "mounted guards" patrolling its length.[18][19] But tensions between the U.S. and Mexico began 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,[19] and was expanded in 1929 with a "six foot–high chain-link fence".[20] The first barrier built by Mexico was likely a 6-foot (1.8 m)-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, and became 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.[21]
The U.S. Congress approved a $4.3 million request by Immigration and Naturalization Service, in 1978, to build a fence along the border to replace an existing 27-mile (43 km) fence near San Ysidro, California, and El Paso, Texas, and then build an additional 6 miles (9.7 km) of new fence.[22][23] Anchor Post Products was contracted to build the new fence in a project inherited from Richard Nixon,[24] who was the first president to propose building a border fence. The proposed construction received press coverage after the company's George Norris, described the fence as a "razor-sharp wall", leading to negative responses in Mexico.[22] The proposed wall, dubbed the "Tortilla Curtain" by critics,[25][26][27] was condemned by Mexican politicians such as then-president José López Portillo, and it was raised as an issue during President Jimmy Carter's state visit to Mexico in February 1979.[22] Fencing was ultimately constructed, but had a limited length and did not have razor wire.[23]
U.S. president George H. W. Bush approved the initial 14 miles (22.5 km) of fencing along the San Diego–Tijuana border.[28] 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[29] in Texas, and Operation Safeguard[30] 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.[28]
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 (121 km) of fencing along the border.[31] In 2005, the border-located Laredo Community College obtained a 10-foot (3.0 m) fence built by the United States Marine Corps. The structure led to a reported decline in border crossings on to the campus.[32] 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-mile (1,123 km) of the 1,954-mile (3,145 km)-long border.[33] 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.[34]
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The Secure Fence Act of 2006, signed into law on October 26, 2006, by President George W. Bush[35] authorized and partially funded the potential construction of 700 miles (1,100 km) of physical fence/barriers along the Mexican border. The bill passed with supermajorities in both chambers.[36][37] 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.[38] The barrier expansion was opposed by a unanimous vote by the Laredo, Texas, City Council.[39] 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.[40]
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.[41]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.[42] In January 2009, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that it had more than 580 miles (930 km) of barriers in place.[43]
On March 16, 2010, DHS announced that there would be a halt to expand the virtual fence beyond two pilot projects in Arizona.[44] 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.[44]
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."[46] The Secure Fence Act's costs were estimated at $6 billion,[47] more than the Customs and Border Protection's entire annual discretionary budget of $5.6 billion.[48] 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.[49]
A 2016 report by the Government Accountability Office confirmed that the government had completed the fence by 2015.[50] A 2017 report noted that "In addition to the 654 miles (1,053 km) of primary fencing, [Customs and Border Protection] has also deployed additional layers of pedestrian fencing behind the primary border fencing, including 37 miles (60 km) of secondary fencing and 14 miles (23 km) of tertiary fencing."[51]
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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.[52][53][54]