Why, Yes. The Big, Beautiful Border Wall DOES Works

The big, beautiful wall (fence / barrier / steel slats / electronic entry control / etc.) on the southern border of the United States is working as intended and is, in fact, functioning quite well. How do we know this? Because of these 3 things:

  1. The number of people illegally entering the country has been cut in half
  2. The vast majority of drug interdictions occur at official points of entry
  3. Wages for farm workers are rising, up from minimum wage to as much as $17/hr

"Hey, wait a minute, EdG!!" you're probably thinking. Our hero Democrats in Congress have thwarted Evil Trump's plan to build his big, beautiful wall. So how in the hell can the wall already be working?

Easy peasy. There's already a wall (etc.) in place on a substantial portion of the southern border. How did this happen? Thank earlier Congresses and especially thank the 109th Congress, which passed the Secure Fence Act of 2006.

By May 2011, DHS reported completing 649 miles of fencing (99.5% of the 652 miles planned). The barrier was made up of 299 miles of vehicle barriers and 350 miles of pedestrian fence. The fencing includes a steel fence (varying in height between 18 and 26 feet) that divides the border towns of Nogales, Arizona in the U.S. and Nogales, Sonora in Mexico. A 2016 report by the Government Accountability Office confirmed that the government had completed the fence by 2015.

Source: Secure Fence Act of 2006

Who voted for the Secure Fence Act? In the Senate, Biden (D-DE), Boxer (D-CA), Clinton (D-NY), Dodd (D-CT), Feinstein (D-CA), Obama (D-IL), Schumer (D-NY) and all but a handful of other Senate Democrats voted for it. In the house, all but 6 Democrats voted for it. Nancy Pelosi was one of the 6 Nay votes.

But the barrier built under the Secure Fence Act covers only about 1/3rd of the entire border. The total length of the continental border is 1,954 miles. Trump's wall, which Democrats are now opposed to, would blanket the rest of the border. Meanwhile, construction on portions of the wall continues apace. For example:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), has awarded a contract to construct up to 14 miles of secondary wall and up to 15 miles of primary pedestrian replacement wall in California within the U.S. Border Patrol’s (USBP) San Diego, Yuma, and El Centro Sectors. The contract was awarded on December 20, 2018 to SLSCO Ltd. using CBP’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 appropriations.

Source: Border Wall Contract Awards in California

As noted earlier, the existing barrier is doing its job. But the job is incomplete because the wall is incomplete. Here's a fuller explanation of where the wall is successful.

Success #1: Reduced Illegal Border Crossings

There is little doubt that the border thingamajiggy has drastically reduced illegal immigration. A common method of estimating illegal entries to the United States uses a derivative of Border Patrol actual apprehensions. The theory is that when more people try to cross, more are caught by Border Patrol. As the chart shows, the number of apprehensions decreased because of the secure fence. As they say, good fences make good neighbors.

Apprehensions.png

Success #2: Increased Drug Interdictions

Another way to tell that the border doohickey works is through drug smuggling interdictions. It's well-known that the majority of illegal drugs entering the US come through ports of entry. This is demonstrated by the fact that most drug busts occur at official entry points and not at wide open sections of border. In other words, there are few if any people with "calves the size of cantaloupes" trudging through the desert carrying sacks of illicit drugs.

Instead of human mules, most drug busts at the border occur at official entry and checkpoints. This proves the barrier is functioning correctly. After all, a fundamental purpose of the wall is to funnel those seeking entry toward one or more locations controlled by US Customs agents.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics, 90 percent of heroin seized along the border, 88 percent of cocaine, 87 percent of methamphetamine, and 80 percent of fentanyl in the first 11 months of the 2018 fiscal year was caught trying to be smuggled in at legal crossing points.

[A side note: There's often confusion about who does what at the border. Customs agents man ports of entry and screen people openly entering the country. Border Patrol agents work the border and border checkpoints looking for those entering the country illegally. Both play a role in catching smugglers.]

Success #3: Improved Farm Wages

The third component proving wall success is that fact that a) wages for farm workers are rising and b) employers of illegal workers are griping.

Everyone knows or should know that farm worker jobs comprise a fairly small segment of overall jobs in the United States and that only a fraction of illegal workers hold jobs in agriculture. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 856,300 agricultural workers as of July, 2016. Reference: BLS - Agricultural Workers. Estimates of the number of those jobs filled by illegal workers range from 25% to 50%, or about 215,000 to 430,000 workers.

It's also known that illegal farm workers are paid 15% less than US workers and often lack the benefits and protections afforded legal workers. Despite that discrepancy, wages for farm workers are rising (see Farmworker wages up 3% in 2017; average now $12.51) and at least some of that is attributable to decreased illegal immigration due to the border fence slats.

Meanwhile, farm owners are complaining that they have to pay workers market wages and compete against other employers. Another owner complaint is that enforcement of labor laws causes loss of laborers willing to work for less money.

The president of the Nisei Farmers League, Manuel Cunha, has grown quite frustrated. He said other industries — construction, restaurants, manufacturing — are trying to lure the same pool of workers, which puts upward pressure on wages. More troublesome, he said, is the federal push for stricter enforcement of immigration laws.

He said when federal authorities contact Central Valley farm contractors and ask them to produce documentation of their workers' right to work in the country, between a third and half of the employees flee.

"Ninety-nine percent of the time the workers never come back. It's a disaster," he said. "I will tell you, I have never seen bigger destruction for employers."

Source: Farm wages rise as labor supply tightens

Opportunity: Decreased Migrant Deaths

At least 412 people lost their lives attempting to cross the border to the US in 2017. Some of the victims drowned trying to cross the Rio Grande or in flooding caused by heavy rains near the river. Others died of exposure and dehydration trying to cross the desert. A few died from violent causes, and the cause of death for many was indeterminable.

Reference: US-Mexico border migrant deaths rose in 2017 even as crossings fell, UN says

Why are these deaths happening? Because the existing barrier works but is incomplete. As we know, the fencing and other components installed thus far effectively restrict access to the stretches of the United States they cover. But the closed sections tend to push would-be border jumpers toward more dangerous desert and river crossings, thereby increasing migrant deaths. Completing the fence is the best way to solve this problem.

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end of story.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Anja Geitz's picture

Decreased border crossings and drug trafficking as a direct consequence to the existence of a wall?

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

@Anja Geitz
It ain't the wall, it's the policies. US prison and law enforcement make big bucks with these so-called holes in the wall. Hey, it's the capitalist way! Make us pay to make people suffer. Daddy big bucks don't care.

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Alligator Ed's picture

@QMS First of all, thanks to edg for this essay.

I am a proponent of enforcing national sovereignty--but not imposing our national ambitions on other sovereignties. I am also a proponent of both sides of the border dilemma being enforced. Besides the political component of illegal border crossings and infiltration of the US by "illegals" (yes, they are just that), enforcing laws already on the books would make a powerful deterrent to the encouraged (covertly) in-migration. If owners were actually fined for each instance in which they hired illegal immigrants, then a powerful incentive might exist which would help both minimum wage recipients (not just farm workers the majority the bulk of those recipients) and those just above them in the economic hierarchy, such as burger flippers.

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dance you monster's picture

1) Fewer people coming in. By all reports this is true, but is that because of the wall or because the opportunities here are not much better for work-seeking crossers than they are outside the U.S.?

2) Drug interdictions occur most frequently at designated crossings. Well, duh, because that's where the people who interdict the drugs are located. You're not measuring drugs, but people. You provide no evidence that they are doing a good job of it, no evidence in your essay that drugs are coming across less successfully overall than they ever did. Without that overall metric of volume, this says nothing at all about the effectiveness of a wall, only that some smugglers want to come over in cars. This is, however, a marginally good piece of data to measure the appeal of air conditioning.

3) Wages for farmworkers are rising. Yup, just like they are for fast-food workers who didn't have to negotiate a wall or border crossing.

Finally, about the drop in deaths, I'd go back to number (1), fewer people want to cross even without the wall. Fewer people, fewer deaths.

[edited to correct the format]

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@dance you monster
It is not drugs, murder, disease, rape or thefts that the wall protects. We already have more than enough of that to go around (by our policies). Hell, Mexico and Canada are making pot legal. US? If LOE cain't make money on it, damn the torpedoes. Gotta fill the jails some damn way. Blame it on the brown skins. Greedy bastids.

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@QMS @QMS thanks and here is Ross Perot in the 1992 Presidential debate about NAFTA:

I decided I was dumb and didn't understand it, so I called the who's who, the folks who've been around it, and I said why won't everybody go south? It will be disruptive I said, for how long? I finally got them up to 'for twelve to fifteen years', and I said well, how does it stop being disruptive? And that is... when their jobs come up from a dollar an hour to six dollars an hour, and ours goes down to six dollars and hour, then it's leveled again. But in the meantime you've wrecked the country with these kinds of deals. We've gotta cut it out.

What a funny coinky-dink, I'm not a math surgeon but '92 + 15 years = 2007. Huh! Let's not all collapse at once about that. How ya likin' the duopoly now? Now that federal minimum wage is $7.25 in year 2019? sit back and enjoy the plutocracy

Federal Minimum Wage
The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, and has not increased since July 2009. However, some states, cities, and counties have a higher minimum wage rate. When the state, city or county minimum wage rate is higher than the federal rate, employers are required to pay workers the higher amount.

embrace the suck
edit: tube link
Giant Sucking Sound - Ross Perot 1992 Presidential
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkgx1C_S6ls

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the rebuttals above take care of this one? At least they've honed My Own cliff notes for wayward(drunk) uncles at family gatherings.
Love Ya, Mon!

peace

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

Azazello's picture

if it makes you feel safer. I don't feel threatened so I think it's bullshit.
This was linked in the Evening Blues tonight: How Not to Build a ‘Great, Great Wall’

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We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

CS in AZ's picture

@Azazello

It provides a comprehensive history, I learned a lot from it.

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Alligator Ed's picture

@Azazello Even as Jim Acosta said from the US side of the wall that he didn't feel threatened and the locals were not alarmed. That's because he was standing next to a long section of completed border wall.

Barriers will never be 100%, but I'll settle for 95%.

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@Alligator Ed
Almost all were born here, though there are exceptions -- Henry Fucking Kissinger, for example, and Zbiggy B.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

snoopydawg's picture

last budget fight in return for DACA and after he agreed he then changed his mind and refused the deal.

I know that they have been willing in the past to fund it, but one thing that's keeping them from doing it now is the Trump administration has offered no plans for how the money is going to be spent and where. It's just give me the money and I'll figure things out later. This is not a way to do business IMO.

I'm fine if they give him money for it if he does show how it's going to be spent. Especially if it will get the government open.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg
protocols set down in our constitution; and among the things he promised was this stupid dumbass pointless ugly expensive waste of time, money and resources.

It's what the people wanted, it's what they expected, and I'm not going to scream and shout and encourage the Democrats to resist it. As titanic boondoggles go, it's not the worst of disasters.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

snoopydawg's picture

@UntimelyRippd

submit a business plan for what they are going to do with it and show how it will work. The democrats have asked Trump to show how he is going to use the $5.7 billion. I don't think that's improper.

The GOP house sure came up with the money quickly didn't they and without asking how they were going "to pay for it" like they do for any money that would help us.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

EdMass's picture

@snoopydawg

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Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!

Firesign Theater

Stop the War!

1. "the number of people illegally crossing the border has been cut in half" Maybe that's because it's less useful to do so. Maybe America has become too hostile, and job opportunities too scarce. Maybe American employers don't need even exploitables any more. Of course, it would have been more effective to make the places people come from worth not leaving, but take what you can get.
2. Yes, more cops = more arrests. You won't find it as much where you aren't looking. But also there will be less smuggling the more it's legalized. Less demand, less supply.
3. Rising wages are your best argument, though that could also be attributed to climate and enforcement.(even Thom Hartmann calls for more enforcement - of predatory employers)
It is based on personal experience, the worst methodology, but America has a contracting economy and endemic racism, both exacerbated by a predatory capitalist class. Illegal immigration is a tool used by those capitalists to depress wages and weaken American society. Maybe Trump's wall is not a good idea, but not because it does or dorsn't work, but because it is exacerbating American racism.

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On to Biden since 1973

CS in AZ's picture

@doh1304

That won’t do! But don’t worry, Trump is gonna fix that problem along with building his Wall. He said so just this week.

In a speech to the largest U.S. farm group, President Trump asked American farmers on Monday to take his side on the partial government shutdown over a border wall and said that with a secure border, “I’m going to make it easier” for farmworkers to enter the country. “Because we want to take people in to help our farmers, et cetera. Very important,” he said.

TRUMP ASKS SUPPORT ON SHUTDOWN, HINTS AT FARMWORKER REFORM

Yes, very important, that they have cheap labor from Mexico. Of course he gets that, he uses them at his own businesses.

Ok, yeah, I know he’s just lying to them and making stuff up. He has no plan of an kind, clearly.

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@CS in AZ
That's why Reagan and Clinton gave amnesties. That's why nobody is talking about enforcing laws against hiring illegals. That's why the fence wasn't completed in 2006.

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On to Biden since 1973

Deja's picture

I've been wondering for a while. What about the wildlife? What about the cattle? Ranchers aren't always the greatest of people, but we eat their products. How will the livestock get to water they previously drank from, if the super effective wall blocks their trail?

I've heard it said that a wall will essentially do the opposite of its intended purpose. It will keep "illegals" in is what was said on NPR, except that there's no full wall now, and it'salready working. The normal folks are too afraid to go back home for visits, or even funerals. I know someone who's married to an American, he has kids with. He did not attend his own father's funeral, for fear he couldn't get back in to his kids. No wall necessary. Just Trump being prez.

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So, I'll just post this link to twitter without further comment:
It's a tweet thread, so read to the end or don't bother.
https://twitter.com/Stonekettle/status/1076224542589284353

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mimi's picture

@peachcreek
take him seriously ... /s

Wacko

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The Trump administration says it will avoid environmental laws to build its $21 billion border wall

lol I think that's called "deflation", from $21B in 2017 to $5B now. Too bad it wasn't ego that got smaller.

In November, US Customs and Border Protection will start building the first part of President Trump's border wall through a Texas wildlife refuge and a 15-mile area in San Diego, using money it has already received from Congress.

But in order to do that, the Trump administration will need to circumvent a number of environmental reviews and regulations.

Under a law that grants the government the ability to waive legal requirements to expedite border infrastructure, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on August 1 that it will bypass dozens of environmental rules in California. In 2005, Congress also passed the Real ID Act, which allows the Department of Homeland Security to waive environmental regulations that would normally halt construction in any wildlife area along the US-Mexico border.

While the 99% fights on a blog, 1% are raping the treasury and destroying the planet. Same as it ever was. Perhaps Trump has wall envy over China, and it's just playing out through the mass media echo chamber like it's supposed to. Naah! It's just plutocracy pulling puppet strings and making people's jaws flap. good luck

peace
P.S. Yeah I can point to articles where vine workers are making $25 and working full time. The precious few, that's what I call 'em. Those who make headlines. What happens when they hit middle-class? Cars! omg why do people want so many fucking cars? Because the school system has been starved in to stupidity by lack of taxation for so long. Walls and wars do not make society thrive, they make plutocrats richer.

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Trump "promised" to withdraw from the middle east. He probably meant to use the troops in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan to invade Iran, but now Turkey has announced that they will genocide the Kurds before he planned get our people out of the way, and that will disrupt that plan. So now he needs something for all those troops to do. He can't just bring them home; Halliburton can't justify $200 each to deliver lunches to Fort Campbell, but South Sanddune, AZ is almost as remote as Fort Freakinhot, Iraq. And all those drones have to to something to keep the profits flowing = ah ha! border patrol!
And why are the corruptocrats against the wall? Face it, they don't give a rat's tail about the Mexicans, though I'm sure they want as many undocumented people remodeling their kitchens for $5 an hour as possible. Try as he might, the wall will not be as profitable as the middle eastern wars, and the Democrats want defense contractor money.

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On to Biden since 1973