Table of Contents
- Recent
- Issue
- Big Picture Graphic
- US Customs and Border Protection cbp.gov
- Arguments for Building a Wall
- Arguments against Building a Wall
- Conclusion
- Inspector General’s Report, July 2020
- Addenda
Recent
- Trump’s Incomplete Border Wall Is in Pieces That Could Linger for Decades, NYT
- Trump’s Border Wall: Where Does It Stand? Factcheck
- Trump’s border wall was a complete waste of time and money, WaPo Editorial Dec 25, 2020
- Report by Office of Inspector General of DHS, July 2020, dhs.org
Issue
Should the US build, or continue building, a wall on the Southern border to help prevent undocumented immigrants, narcotics, terrorists, and WMDs from entering the country?
Big Picture Graphic
US Customs and Border Protection
cbp.gov
- CBP’s mission is to prevent
- Terrorists and their weapons, including weapons of mass destruction, from entering the United States.
- The top priority
- Illegal immigration
- Narcotics smuggling
- Illegal importation
- Terrorists and their weapons, including weapons of mass destruction, from entering the United States.
- CBP secures the border
- At ports of entry by CBP officers from the Office of Field Operations
- Along U.S. borders by agents from the Office of Border Patrol
- From the air and sea by agents from the Office of Air and Marine Operations.
- CBP’s Current Methods
- Surveillance systems, inspections and searches at ports of entry, border patrols, surveillance aircraft, coastal interceptor boats, canine units, fences, lighting, cameras, sensors
Arguments for Building a Wall
Crisis on the Southern Border
- Argument
- There is a growing humanitarian and security crisis at our southern border
- Trump’s oval office speech 1/8/2019
- Objection
- There’s no growing security crisis at our southern border
- Apprehensions of people trying to cross the southern border peaked most recently at 1.6 million in 2000 and have been in decline since, falling to just under 400,000 in fiscal 2018. There are far more cases of travelers overstaying their visas than southern border apprehensions.
- There’s no growing security crisis at our southern border
Illegal drugs
- Argument
- Our southern border is a pipeline for vast quantities of illegal drugs including meth, heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl. Every week, 300 of our citizens are killed by heroin alone. Ninety percent of which floods across from our southern border.
- Objections
- The vast majority of the illegal heroin enters the U.S. through legal ports of entry and would not be stopped by a wall.
- Most fentanyl enters the United States from packages mailed directly from China and through Canada from China
Crime by illegal aliens
- Argument
- In the last two years, ICE officers made 266,000 arrests of aliens with criminal records including those charged or convicted of 100,000 assaults, 30,000 sex crimes, and 4,000 violent killings. Over the years, thousands of Americans have been brutally killed by those who illegally entered our country and thousands more lives will be lost if we don’t act right now. (Trump’s oval office speech 1/8/2019
- Objection
- Illegal immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans.
- Most crimes by criminal aliens are illegal entry and re-entry
Wall will pay for itself
- Argument
- The border wall would very quickly pay for itself. The cost of illegal drugs exceeds $500 billion a year. Vastly more than the $5.7 billion we have requested from Congress. The wall will also be paid for indirectly by the great new trade deal we have made with Mexico. (Trump’s oval office speech 1/8/2019)
- Objections
- The wall would do little to stop drugs from entering the United States, since they primarily come in through legal points of entry, making the cost of illegal drugs irrelevant to this issue.
- There are no plausible assumptions under which USMCA would increase government revenue by enough to pay for the wall.
- washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/09/fact-checking-president-trumps-oval-office-address-immigration/
- factcheck.org/2018/12/is-mexico-paying-for-the-wall-through-usmca/
- politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2019/jan/04/donald-trump/no-usmca-trade-deal-wont-pay-border-wall-despite-d/
- politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/dec/05/donald-trump/donald-trumps-false-claim-about-cost-illegal-immig/
Terrorists at the border
- Argument
- Significant numbers of known terrorists, suspected terrorists, and/or special-interest aliens enter or try to enter the US through the Southern border. (Argument not included in Trump’s oval office speech)
- Objection
- Fact-checks of various claims about terrorists at the Southern Border
- washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/07/trump-administrations-misleading-spin-immigration-crime-terrorism/
- washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/01/08/key-parts-trump-administrations-border-rhetoric-are-wrong-according-trump-administration/
- washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/10/23/pence-vouches-trumps-dubious-terrorists-in-the-caravan-claim-with-bogus-stat/
- politifact.com/texas/statements/2018/feb/21/mike-pence/pants-fire-mike-pences-claim-about-nabbing-7-terro/
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered only six immigrants at ports of entry on the U.S-Mexico border in the first half of fiscal year 2018 whose names were on a federal government list of known or suspected terrorists, according to CBP data provided to Congress in May 2018 and obtained by NBC News.
- Fact-checks of various claims about terrorists at the Southern Border
Effectiveness of a wall
- Argument
- “Everybody knows that a Wall will work perfectly. (In Israel the Wall works 99.9%.)” — Donald Trump
- Objections
- Walls are not impregnable
- People and things can go over, under, around, between, and through a wall.
- Argument
- In El Paso … it was one of the most dangerous cities in the country. A wall was put up. It went from being one of the most dangerous cities in the country to one of the safest cities in the country overnight. Overnight. Does that tell you something?
- Trump 1/14/2019
- Objection
- Factcheck.org
Arguments against Building a Wall
Ineffectiveness of a wall
- People and things can go over, under, around, between, and through a wall.
- Over
- Ultralight Aircraft, Drones, Catapults, Ladders, Air Compression Guns
- Under
- Tunnels
- Around
- Boats
- Between
- Ports of entry and in the gaps between wall segments.
- Through
- Saws, Sledgehammers, Jackhammers, Explosives, RPGs
- “Testing by DHS in late 2017 showed all eight prototypes, including the steel slats, were vulnerable to breaching, according to an internal February 2018 U.S. Customs and Border Protection report.”
- “Smugglers sawed into new sections of President Trump’s border wall 18 times in the San Diego area during a single one-month span late last year.”
- Saws, Sledgehammers, Jackhammers, Explosives, RPGs
- Over
- By Land, Sea or Catapult: How Smugglers Get Drugs Across the Border
- Most undocumented immigrants enter the US by overstaying short-term visas.
- The vast majority of the illegal heroin enters the U.S. through legal ports of entry and would not be stopped by a wall.
- Most fentanyl enters the United States from packages mailed directly from China and through Canada from China
- WMDs can enter the US from Canada or on cargo ships
- Terrorists from abroad can enter the US through Canada, by boat on the eastern or western seaboards, and by plane.
- Despite Trump’s repeated claim that terrorists are entering through the southern border, the State Department reported that at the end of 2017, “there was no credible evidence indicating that international terrorist groups have established bases in Mexico, worked with Mexican drug cartels, or sent operatives via Mexico into the United States,” and noted, “The U.S. southern border remains vulnerable to potential terrorist transit, although terrorist groups likely seek other means of trying to enter the United States.”
Costs
- Building the wall could cost anywhere from 21.6 to 70 billion dollars, excluding maintenance and excluding the significant costs for land acquisition (including lawsuits and settlements)
- politifact.com/california/statements/2017/apr/28/scott-peters/would-trumps-border-wall-cost-same-one-and-half-us/
- In February 2017, a leaked report from the Department of Homeland Security put the cost at $21.6 billion.
- In April 2017, the Democratic staff of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said in a report that costs could soar to nearly $70 billion — not including the significant costs and legal resources required for land acquisition.
- Trump’s Border Wall Could Waste Billions of Dollars, Report Says
- politifact.com/california/statements/2017/apr/28/scott-peters/would-trumps-border-wall-cost-same-one-and-half-us/
- A wall would be an ecological disaster.
- Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, near McAllen, has been identified by federal officials as the first construction site for Mr Trump’s wall.
- WSJ, NPR, WaPo, Vox, ProPublica, DMN Editorial, SciAm
- vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/4/10/14471304/trump-border-wall-animals
- Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, near McAllen, has been identified by federal officials as the first construction site for Mr Trump’s wall.
Conclusion
- The proposed wall along the Southern border would be ineffective in preventing people, drugs, terrorists, and WMDs from illegally entering the US.
- Funds for a wall would be better spent on
- Expanding CBP’s current methods
- Developing new technologies
Inspector General’s Report, July 2020
Report by Office of Inspector General of DHS, July 2020
CBP Has Not Demonstrated Acquisition Capabilities Needed to Secure the Southern Border
- CBP Did Not Conduct an Analysis of Alternatives to Assess All Possible Alternatives to Secure the Southern Border
- Although directed to do so by Congress and the Department, CBP did not conduct an AoA [Analysis of Alternatives] to assess and select the most effective, appropriate, and affordable solutions to obtain operational control of the southern border.
- Specifically, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017, as well as subsequent appropriations, required the Department submit … a risk-based plan for improving security along the borders of the United States, including the use of personnel, fencing, other forms of tactical infrastructure, and technology.
- Border Patrol Faulted For Favoring Steel And Concrete Wall Over High-Tech Solutions NPR
- Last month, the Inspector General’s Office of the Homeland Security Department released a report critical of the Border Patrol’s single-minded fixation on a wall as the answer to border security.
- “CBP’s inability to effectively guide this large-scale effort poses significant risk of exponentially increasing costs,” the report said. In fact, the audit said Border Patrol insisted on a wall, even though the agency’s own internal analysis identified domain awareness technology and boots on the ground as smarter solutions in certain border regions.
A Philosopher's View 