Understanding border barriers
“Why Do States Build Walls? Political Economy, Security, and Border Stability”
Carter, David B.; Poast, Paul. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2017.
Two scholars from Princeton University and the University of Chicago teamed up to examine the reasons why governments in various parts of the world erected border walls between 1800 and 2014. They refer to border wall construction as a “particularly aggressive strategy” for addressing unauthorized crossings and explain that walls are “almost always evidence that neighbors are not effectively cooperating in managing the border and have inconsistent border management strategies.”
The researchers examined 62 border walls, some of which stretch thousands of miles. France, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Soviet Union are “the most active users” of border walls, the authors note. In addition, more than half of border walls erected during the last two centuries were built in the post-Cold War era.
The researchers find that territorial disputes are not a consistent factor driving governments to erect walls. Neither is the presence of civil war in a neighboring state. Economic inequality, however, is. “Borders that separate economies with very different levels of development are likely to be unstable,” the authors write. “This instability is associated with a significantly higher probability of wall construction.”
According to the authors, the fact that economic inequality is “the most robust predictor of border walls” indicates that walls built in recent decades were designed to fortify countries against unwanted immigrants and illegal trade.
“Progress and Challenges with the Use of Technology, Tactical Infrastructure, and Personnel to Secure the Southwest Border”
Report of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-18-397T, March 2018.
This report examines some of the challenges the CBP faces in using technology, border fencing and other resources to control the U.S.-Mexico border. The report, released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), also criticizes CBP and the Border Patrol for not doing more to assess the effectiveness of their efforts.
For example, the report notes that CBP “has not developed metrics that systematically use data it collects to assess the contributions of border fencing to its mission, as the Government Accountability Office has recommended.” Also, the Border Patrol “has not yet used available data to determine the contribution of surveillance technologies to border security efforts.”
The report spotlights problems in maintaining the border fence. “From fiscal years 2010 through 2015, CBP recorded a total of 9,287 breaches in pedestrian fencing, and repair costs averaged $784 per breach,” according to the report. Parts of the fence have become so degraded they needed replacing. From 2011 to 2016, CBP spent $4.84 million per mile, on average, to replace 14.1 miles of border fencing.
“Barriers Along the U.S. Borders: Key Authorities and Requirements”
Garcia, Michael John. Report of the Congressional Research Center, March 2017.
This 44-page report, issued by Congress’ public policy research arm, offers a close examination of the federal laws and policies that govern how physical barriers can or should be used along America’s international borders. The report also outlines the various laws that DHS can waive for the construction of border fencing – the Safe Drinking Water Act, Archeological Resources Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, for example. In the report, Michael John Garcia, the acting section research manager for the Congressional Research Center, also makes it clear that there are no legal barriers to prevent the expansion of a America’s border barrier.
Garcia explains that after several hundred miles of barrier were constructed between 2005 and 2011, DHS “largely stopped deploying additional fencing, as the agency altered its enforcement strategy in a manner that places less priority upon barrier construction.” Before Trump became president in 2017, federal law already required DHS to build almost 50 miles of additional barrier. However, no deadline had been set for the completion of that expansion, according to the report.
Effectiveness, economic impacts
“Border Walls”
Allen, Treb; Dobbin, Cauê de Castro; Morten, Melanie. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 25267, November 2018.
Scholars from Dartmouth College and Stanford University examine how expanding the U.S.-Mexico border fence has affected migration and the U.S. economy. They focus on the segment erected between 2007 and 2010 under the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which added 548 miles of reinforced fencing in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas.
The key takeaway: The $2.3 billion project curbed migration and benefited low-skill U.S. workers but hurt high-skill U.S. workers. “In total, we estimate the Secure Fence Act reduced the aggregate Mexican population living in the United States by 0.64 percent, equivalent to a reduction of 82,647 people,” the authors write.
Researchers find that for each migrant lost, America’s gross domestic product fell by about $30,000. “Because the wall expansion resulted in fewer Mexican workers residing in the United States, economic activity was redistributed toward Mexico, increasing real GDP in Mexico by $1.2 billion and causing real GDP in the United States to fall by $2.5 billion,” they write.
The expansion led to a slight increase in per capita income – an extra 36 cents — for low-skill workers in the U.S. Meanwhile, high-skill workers saw a small drop – an estimated loss of $4.35.
According to the analysis, another fence expansion “would have larger impacts on migration from Mexico to the United States, they would also result in greater reallocation of economic activity to Mexico; for example, a wall expansion that builds along half the remaining uncovered border would result in 144,256 fewer Mexican workers residing in the United States, causing the United States real GDP to decline by $4.3 billion, or approximately $29,800 in lost economic output for each migrant prevented.”
It’s important to note that the researchers’ estimates are based on the number of Mexican citizens living in the U.S. who applied for an identification card from a Mexican consulate in the U.S. It is unclear what percentage of Mexican citizens residing in the U.S. seek a consulate ID card, about 850,000 of which are issued per year, according to the study.
The researchers suggest that instead of expanding the border fence, a better option for reducing migration would be to cut the costs of trade between the two countries. That should result in higher wages in Mexico, the authors explain. Cutting trade costs by 25 percent, for example, “would have resulted in both greater declines in Mexico to United States migration and substantial welfare gains for all workers.”
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