Border Walls: Overview

Introduction

Walls are among the oldest strategies aimed at tightening borders and protecting a country’s interests. Historical examples from around the world include the Great Wall of China, Hadrian's Wall in modern-day England, and the Berlin Wall erected during the Cold War. Land disputes, sectarian rifts, illegal immigration, smuggling, and terrorism are some of the reasons why modern governments construct such walls. Critics, meanwhile, often argue that border walls are ineffective at addressing those issues while also being expensive, disruptive, and socially divisive.

In the United States, attention to the issue has focused heavily on the border with Mexico, due to longstanding concerns about undocumented immigrants crossing that border illegally. Notably, in 2006 Congress passed the Secure Fence Act with bipartisan support, sanctioning the Department of Homeland Security to erect a barrier along approximately 700 miles (1,126 kilometers) of the Mexican border. Supporters hoped this would prevent undocumented immigrants as well as drug smugglers from entering the United States. However, the plan proved deeply controversial. A May 2006 Gallup Poll found that while most Americans were in favor of immigration reform, 56 percent opposed the wall. Common criticisms included the high cost of building a wall and doubts that it would be effective. A diverse range of groups also expressed other concerns: for example, the Roman Catholic Church took the position that a wall would cause or exacerbate humanitarian problems among Mexican families; many members of the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona suggested the wall would impede their traditional movement across the border for cultural, social, and spiritual reasons; environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, argued the wall would destroy protected wildlife refuges and further endanger threatened species; and the Mexican government criticized the wall as a symbol of political and cultural animosity. Despite such opposition, by 2015 most of the barrier allocated under the Secure Fence Act had been constructed. Most studies indicated it had minimal impact on illegal border crossings.

The debate over a US-Mexico border wall reentered the spotlight with the 2016 presidential election, as Republican candidate Donald Trump made a bigger and better border wall a central feature of his ultimately successful campaign and subsequent administration. Trump and other supporters of the wallstoked fears that undocumented immigration was causing the collapse of US public infrastructure, lower wages for American workers, and higher crime. They argued that a wall would address these problems, and even claimed that they would get Mexico to pay for the construction. However, Trump's border wall effort was delayed by a struggle to secure funding, and limited construction began only in 2019. After President Joe Biden took office in 2021 he reversed many of Trump's immigration policies and announced most border wall construction would be halted. However, some barriers continued to be built and maintained, and debate over the issue persisted.

Understanding the Discussion

Borderlands Conservation and Security Act (HR 2593): A bill introduced in Congress in 2007 by Representative Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), that would have established the Borderlands Conservation Fund and attempted to mitigate the effects of a proposed border wall or fence on Native American property, National Park and National Forest property, and on other land maintained by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The bill was not passed.

Executive Order 13767: An executive order signed in January 2017 by President Trump immediately after his inauguration, titled Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements, directing a wall to be built along the US-Mexico border.

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): An agreement between Mexico, the United States, and Canada that expanded the number of goods that could cross international borders duty free; it was replaced by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in 2020.

Secure Fence Act of 2006: A law that directed the Secretary of Homeland Security to secure land and maritime borders of the United States. Methods include increased border patrols, surveillance, and other technologies, and 700 miles (1,126 kilometers) of physical barriers along the Mexican border.

Sonoran pronghorn (Antilocapra americana sonoriensis): An endangered species of American antelope. Less than two hundred Sonoran pronghorns live in the United States, where they are protected at the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge south of Phoenix, Arizona. Another small population lives in Sonora, Mexico.

Tohono O’odham Nation: An American Indian tribe with traditional tribal lands that span the border between the United States and Mexico.

Virtual wall: A system of high-security cameras, sensors, lights, biometrics, and other surveillance technology used to monitor a border in lieu of a physical wall.

History

Walls have been used since ancient times to regulate borders, from those of small individual properties to lengthy boundaries between political or cultural groups. Much of the 3,000-mile (4,828 kilometer) Great Wall of China was constructed during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) to prevent attacks from rival forces, although officials as early as the fifth century BCE also built sections of this and other walls. The Roman Empire was protected by natural barriers, including rivers in Europe and the Sahara Desert in North Africa. However, when the Roman Emperor Hadrian (76–138 CE) visited Britain in 122 CE, he ordered a stone wall built to protect this more vulnerable northern boundary. Hadrian’s Wall stretched across England for over 73 miles (117 kilometers) and was as thick as 10 feet (3 meters).

Examples of border walls continued to appear as modern nation-states emerged and industrial capacity improved. In many cases they were built by authoritarian regimes seeking not only defense against outsiders, but also control over an internal population. During World War II, the Nazis forced hundreds of thousands of Polish Jews into a small area of Warsaw and contained them with a wall. Within the walled territory, which was known as the Warsaw Ghetto, disease, starvation, and other pitiful conditions spread. The Warsaw Ghetto became a symbol of severe repression throughout the world during the mid-twentieth century. The 96-mile (154-kilometer), nearly 12-foot (3.6-meter) Berlin Wall built in 1961 by the communist German Democratic Republic (GDR) divided East Berlin from West Berlin. The wall served to block people in the East from defecting to the West until 1989, when the Cold War ended and the wall was demolished.

In the United States, the debate over border walls has mainly focused on the southern border with Mexico and the issue of undocumented immigration, which increased significantly in the late twentieth century. In 1986, Congress passed and President Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), which sought to crack down on illegal immigration by imposing penalties for hiring undocumented workers but also granted lawful permanent residence to 2.7 million previously undocumented people in the US. Instead of reducing the flow of illegal immigration, it actually caused a brief spike, as many family members of the newly legalized residents entered the country illegally.

In 1990 the United States constructed a 66-mile (106-kilometer) fence along the Mexican border from San Diego to the Pacific Ocean in an effort to reduce the high number of illegal border crossings in that area. Arrests of undocumented immigrants in the San Diego region declined sharply as a result of the fence. However, analysts noted that the fencing largely just drove migrants to find other places to cross the border; arrests of undocumented immigrants increased nearly 600 percent in Arizona, and the number of accidental deaths also climbed as more migrants attempted to traverse the harsh desert environment.

In 1996 President Bill Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. The act increased fines for undocumented immigrants, provided additional funding for border patrol and surveillance, and also approved the installation of an additional 14-mile (22-kilometer) fence near San Diego. Some landowners in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas erected their own fences, often with the help of anti-immigrant militias, but no permanent barrier was initially constructed by the government in those areas.

The Secure Fence Act, signed by President George W. Bush in 2006, promised 700 miles (1,126 kilometers) of fencing along the US-Mexico border; however, lawsuits and protests from citizen groups delayed construction. The Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife filed a lawsuit challenging the ability of the Bush administration to waive important environmental regulations in order to build the wall on the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area in Arizona. These regulations include the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. In October 2007, a US district court sided with the organizations and temporarily stopped construction.

Many members of the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona also protested a section of the barrier being built on their reservation, especially since they claimed they were not first consulted by the Bush administration. The Tohono O’odham have members who live on each side of the border and consider both countries their home. They valued the ability to cross the border unimpeded but also expressed frustration at the problems that undocumented immigration brought to their reservation. Bodies were frequently found in the area, as people died from exposure to the harsh desert climate or were killed by smugglers.

Given the controversy over the border wall plan, some advocates proposed a "virtual wall" as a potential compromise, improving border security while addressing some of the criticisms of a physical barrier. Such a wall was among the requests put forth by Representative Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), who introduced the Borderlands Conservation and Security Act (HR 2593) in 2007. However, the bill did not pass. Virtual walls also were not without controversy. Some Americans living in areas in which high-tech surveillance was used complained of the invasion of privacy caused by cameras and other equipment, and safety issues related to using laser, radar, and biometric technology. Other critics suggested the technology needed for a virtual border wall would be prohibitively expensive and difficult to maintain.

Meanwhile, border walls have also been an issue in other countries around the world. In 2002, Israel began construction on the “separation barrier,” a 26-foot (41-kilometer) high concrete wall in the disputed West Bank area. By 2012 over 220 miles (360 kilometers) of barrier had been built, with plans stalled on an additional 200 miles (320 kilometers). Many Israelis suggested the wall saved lives by preventing sectarian clashes. In contrast, Palestinians argued that it completely divided many towns and destroyed agricultural lands. Some referred to it as the “Apartheid Wall” and claimed it violated international law and human rights as determined by the International Court of Justice and the United Nations (UN) General Assembly. Israel also constructed a wall along the border with Egypt, which was completed in 2013.

During the US occupation of Iraq, the US military strategically built walls. However, a wall constructed in 2007 around the Sunni neighborhood Adhamiyah drew criticism from Sunnis, Shiites, and Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. While the military hoped to quell sectarian violence, many residents saw the wall as “punishment” and believed that it would increase violence.

The number of border walls continued to grow, especially as nationalism and anti-migrant sentiment increased in many areas in the 2010s. Iran began erecting a 700-kilometer (435 mile) wall along its border with Pakistan. India constructed fences along its border with Pakistan, and planned a fence along the nearly 5,000-kilometer border with Bangladesh, as well as a 767-kilometer (476-mile) fence along the contested territories of Jammu and Kashmir. Malaysia and Thailand built sections of wall along their shared border to deter illegal workers, smugglers, and terrorists. Brazil began building a 3-meter (10-foot) high wall along its Paraguayan border, near the city of Foz de Iguaçu, to deter smugglers from entering the country illegally. In 2012, a fence along the border between Greece and Turkey was completed to keep out immigrants and refugees; in 2015, Hungary constructed a fence along its border with Serbia and Bulgaria built a fence along its border with Turkey; and in 2016, work began on a mile-long concrete wall to extend a fence meant to separate Great Britain from the large migrant camp in Calais, France.

Border Walls Today

In the United States, the debate about a wall along the Mexican border was renewed in 2015, when Donald Trump made illegal immigration and border security a focus of his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. By that time, more than $7 billion had been spent to construct approximately 650 miles of fencing along the border, with costs reaching up to $5 million per mile in some areas. Maintenance of the existing portions of the wall was also expensive, with the Department of Homeland of Security spending millions of dollars each year to repair breaches. While homeland security officials claimed that the border wall had been effective in deterring illegal immigration, many critics questioned the high cost of building and maintaining the wall and argued that other strategies and technologies—such as seismic sensors, drone surveillance, and increasing the number of Border Patrol officers—would be more cost-effective.

On several occasions, Trump promised that if elected, he would have a wall built along the entire border that would be funded by Mexico. This proposal sparked renewed protest from those who believed such a wall would be impractical and financially unfeasible, and Mexico's president rejected the idea of his country being required to shoulder the financial burden. Nonetheless, following his inauguration, Trump signed an executive order stating, "It is the policy of the executive branch to secure the southern border of the United States through the immediate construction of a physical wall on the southern border." However, Trump initially struggled to secure funding for the project, especially after control of the House of Representatives passed to Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections. In late December 2018, the federal government shut down for more than a month as Trump and Congress faced off over the president's demand for $5.7 billion in an appropriations bill to fund wall construction. The shutdown ended with no new money for a wall.

In February 2019 Trump declared a national emergency in an attempt to secure wall funding without congressional approval, and then vetoed Congress's resolution overturning that declaration. As various legal challenges played out, the Supreme Court approved the diversion of $2.5 billion in Department of Defense funds to wall construction in July 2019. Another $3.6 billion was reallocated toward the project that September, and a court challenge to the use of military funds for the wall was overturned on appeal in early 2020. By that time about 100 miles of wall had been built under the Trump administration, though the vast majority of that replaced existing barriers.

Trump continued to promote his border wall efforts into 2020 as he sought reelection, and suggested the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was an example of why such a wall was important. (Most epidemiologists disputed the idea that a wall would have any impact on disease control.) Construction work carried on and even accelerated despite the widespread lockdown due to the pandemic, generating public health concerns from opponents. Trump also drew attention in May 2020 by reiterating his frequent demand that the wall be painted black, which he claimed would make it look more forbidding as well as make it too hot in the sun to climb. However, experts noted any temperature impact would be negligible and that painting would add at least $500 million more to the project and require further maintenance.

By the time Trump left office in January 2021, government reports indicated that about 438 miles of border wall had been built during his administration. The vast majority of that involved replacement of existing barriers, with only 40 miles of fencing erected in areas that were previously unobstructed. On his first day in office, President Joe Biden released an executive order calling for all border wall construction to be paused. Most building contracts were subsequently canceled, although over the next few years the Biden administration did authorize limited new construction and repairs, especially in high-traffic areas. Migrant arrivals at the US-Mexican border surged during this period, leading to further debate over immigration policy and border security. However, studies continued to indicate that physical barriers were largely ineffective in preventing illegal border crossings and often had various negative impacts. In July 2022 it was reported that Biden and Mexican president Andres Manuel López Obrador reached an agreement to invest in technological solutions for border patrol and other related initiatives.

Meanwhile, some US states made efforts to build their own physical barriers along the Mexican border. Republican Texas governor Greg Abbott stated plans for a border wall in 2021, calling for public donations to fund it. In 2022 a wall made from shipping containers was erected in Arizona under the administration of Republican governor Doug Ducey. That structure, which was largely on US Forest Service land, was widely criticized by environmentalists. After multiple lawsuits were filed, the container wall began to be removed in early 2023. Texas also earned attention for other erecting other structures to deter migrants, including buoys in parts of the Rio Grande and layer of razor or concertina wire. In 2023 federal government ordered the removal of the buoys, noting that many were on the Mexican side of the river, and took Texas to court after Governor Abbott refused to comply. A federal judge initially ruled that the buoys must be moved, but that decision was overturned on appeal in January 2024. In a separate case over Texas's use of concertina wire along the border, the Supreme Court ruled in January 2024 that federal officials were allowed to cut and remove the wire barriers when necessary to carry out their duties.

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