The U.S. border wall and its history
US News
The U.S. border wall and its history
According to an August Rasmussen poll, 51 percent of all likely voters favor building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. But a quick look back at not-so-distant history might give some voters pause. Construction of the so-called Border Wall began in 1993, between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico. In October 2006, President George W. Bush signed the Secure Fence Act, calling for 700 miles of double-layer fencing along the southwest border. Not long after Bush signed the act, the Department of Homeland Security argued that it would be impossible to construct the same type of fencing across the border’s diverse terrain. In 2011, the Obama administration announced it was cutting funding for a virtual wall project Bush had also initiated.
Simply stated, a fence is a 14th-century solution to a 21st-century problem.
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas
There’s no question that building a wall that spans the entire U.S.-Mexico border is a costly undertaking. And while Donald Trump says he plans to use his negotiating skills to make Mexico foot the bill, the costs of a border wall aren’t just financial. Hard numbers on attempted border crossers are hard to come by. But statistics show that, in the years since the first pieces of the border wall were erected, while illegal migration from Mexico hasn’t slowed, migrant deaths have been on the rise. Ultimately, though, the real measure of a border wall’s potential effect is whether the results outweigh the financial, environmental and even human costs.
