The Great Wall of China, the Berlin Wall, Hadrian’s Wall, the Western Sahara Border Wall, the Israeli West Bank Wall…. Have we learned nothing from history? It’s time we learn from the mistakes of others and history, it’s time we recognize the futility of building walls.
One of the first things that came to my mind when considering writing about the “wall” was that the mere idea of this wall is so absurd that well known comedian George Lopez has joked: “Who do you think they'll get to build the wall?” But building a 700-mile long fence that Mexican nationals and other hopefuls will cut through - which has already happened at Columbus, New Mexico - (Vandalizan), scale, go around, or tunnel under is more than absurd. The United States wants to build a wall to secure its borders and help solve its immigration crisis. The complexity of this is mind-boggling and it is difficult if not impossible to imagine how this can be done by erecting a wall. Whereas it is undeniable that there is a huge wave of migration, a wall, high fences, increased manpower, barbed wire, or technological resources are very ineffective ways to stop this. For one, “the estimated $2 billion price tag and the mandate that it be completed by 2008 overlook 10 years of legal and logistical difficulties the federal government has faced to finish a comparatively tiny fence of 14 miles dividing San Diego and Tijuana.” (Pomfret, John. 2006)
But more importantly, the United States cannot be an island, which is what is happening. It must be a generator of opportunities throughout the hemisphere. The greater majority of the nationals of any of the Latin countries would much prefer not to have to go to another country, but the opportunities are just not there. That is the root of the problems. Of course, it goes without saying that the Latin countries themselves should be much more proactive than they are in generating jobs for their own populations – which means that there has to be very close cooperation between the U.S. and the different countries of the hemisphere and it is certainly in the U.S.’s self interest to promote this.
The wall along the border between Mexico and the United States is supposed to stop illegal immigration from Mexico into the U.S. As a border resident – Mexican side – I know, as do most people, that this is impossible. I read somewhere that the Americans got the idea of constructing a wall or fence from the Israelis. In reality though, the U.S. government has been working on this wall since around 1994. If memory serves me, ‘Operation Gatekeeper’ started around the time NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, which increased U.S. competition with low-wage Mexico, was signed. The wall starts on the west coast at San Diego, at the border crossing with Tijuana. The result of the wall there was that immigration moved, as probably intended, further eastward where the landscape is inhospitable and the climate more extreme. Every year hundreds of illegal immigrants die from exposure to the sun, exhaustion, snake bites, dehydration, suffocation, and other such causes. It is an appalling fact that far more deaths occur every year on the border between the United States and Mexico – two friendly nations – than the 287 deaths in the approximately 28 years of existence of the reviled Berlin wall (Cooper, 2003). People smugglers known as ‘coyotes’ or ‘polleros’ who help the undocumented entrants on their way in exchange for ever increasing amounts of money are known to abandon them once across the border. Their only hope is often the help they may get from organizations such as the Samaritans who drive around the desert in areas where migrants commonly cross the border and often get lost. These Samaritans provide them with food packages, water, diapers, shoes, and other items much needed by these migrants in spite of the fact that they are not allowed to do so by the Border Patrol. Some organizations also place containers of water, food, and blankets marked by flags and blinking lights at different points in the desert to try and save lives; they are not allowed to pick up people and take them to hospitals. The Border Patrol goes after anything that moves with helicopters, dogs, and infrared equipment. They are assisted in their efforts, especially on weekends, by U.S. citizen militias who play their own games clad in camouflage outfits and carrying modern weapons. I know from extensive personal experience that anyone traveling along the border is constantly stopped and questioned.
Apart from the San Diego area, there are also stretches of wall in other places, such as here in the El Paso area (Operation Hold the Line) and at Nogales, Arizona (Operation Safeguard). (Interview 1999). The total length of this wall is already considerable, but the border is still as penetrable as a sieve. It is generally estimated that three out of four intents to cross the border are successful which amounts to hundreds of thousands per year. Most of those that succeed go to Los Angeles, Chicago, or other cities where there is work and where they can disappear in large Mexican communities. After Mexico City, Los Angeles is the largest ‘Mexican’ city in the world followed by Chicago. There are some 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States (though estimates of 20 million are not uncommon) a majority of whom are Mexicans, and an additional flow of about 500,000 per year. (Reno, Kliff & Campo-Flores, 2008).
Obviously many Americans worry about the consequences of the mass-immigration phenomenon. The people in Latin countries, on the other hand, are bombarded every day by television programs, newspapers articles, movies, internet sites, etc. that assure us that most Americans want to seal the border and stop the catholic, uneducated, not-brought-up-with-democratic-protestant-and-liberal-values Mexicans. That these Americans believe that the Mexicans, with all their children, are creating a bio-bomb because all these U.S. born children are automatic U.S. citizens; that the violent ‘Mexican gangs’ whose members can number in the thousands and who exacerbate the fear these Americans have are unstoppable, and that in the shanty towns that spring up like mushrooms on the outskirts of cities, chaos, drugs, and crime reign. There is no shortage of reasons for thinking that beautiful, healthy, and prosperous America is being taken down by criminal and violent Mexico.
What is an undeniable reality though is the fact that many employers, agricultural, industrial, services, or others, are only too happy to receive the constant flow of cheap labor. Even the staunch supporters of halting immigration recognize that “the vast majority of illegals hold jobs…that there is little evidence that illegals come to America to take advantage of public benefits… [and that] the vast majority is in fact employed.” (Camarota, 2004. P. 5, 37). Labor unions sympathize with the hard lot of illegal workers but have difficulty with the fact that these workers are willing to accept very little money and thus keep wages down. This results in the growth of poverty among workers and that could potentially mean the end of the American middle class. In a pessimistic view of the future, this situation creates huge impoverished masses and a small extremely wealthy elite class. The Mexico model, so to speak.
Washington has wrestled with the immigration problem for years – halfheartedly. Construction of the wall continues steadfastly but the “aliens”, “illegal immigrants”, “undocumented workers”, or whatever the politically correct name of the moment is, keep crossing the border and do not have much trouble finding jobs. Employing illegal entrants is prohibited but tacitly accepted. The border patrol picks up people who, as everyone knows, will try again the next day. Every so often, immigration officers go after the housekeepers, maids, nannies, gardeners, and construction workers because rules are rules. But these are symbolic actions which mask the reality.
However, the pressure on Washington to take effective measures is increasing. On the other hand, the illegal immigrants are also letting themselves be heard more and more. There have been mass demonstrations everywhere in the U.S. – I myself witnessed one in Seattle - demanding a humane immigration policy. There is a kind of illegal movement going on which demands legalization and better working conditions.
The proposed Bush guest worker program, renewing guest worker visas, current undocumented workers paying fines and then getting visas, etc. would have been a good start, or at least a step in the right direction. I realize many people, including some of my own family members, disagree, arguing that illegal immigrants should not get privileges that legal immigrants didn’t have. However, the government has to start somewhere and it cannot start by reversing the present situation; it has to work with the situation “as is”.
But back to the wall. A wall on the border between Mexico and the United States will affect trade, the environment, the distribution of water from the Rio Bravo (Grande), the physical border between the two countries and many other things, but not the passing of immigrants. A wall is a measure of force for an economic problem. As long as there are people who cannot feed their families and have no job in their own country, whether in Mexico or any other Latin American country, and these people see opportunities, work, and education close at hand, they will continue to take the risks and cross illegally.
Even though it may seem a minor problem compared to the human issue, the water issue on the U.S. side comes into play because the wall will take away the use of the Rio Grande in parts of Texas. Jorge Ramos, well known Mexican journalist, interviewed the mayor of Del Rio for the Excelsior newspaper article “El Muro: Tres Minutos de Retraso” (Ramos, Jorge. 2008). Mayor Valdez stated that 95% of the land in Texas that borders the river is private property and the ranch owners will not be able to take their animals to the river to drink. In addition, it will be much more difficult for them to use the water for irrigation because there will be a wall blocking it leaving the river entirely in Mexico instead of half in the U.S. and half in Mexico. Imagine the repercussions of this: the U.S. being the U.S., lawsuits will be, and already are, rampant! Also, the ecological issue has once again become prominent in the news. On April 4, the El Paso Times reported that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff would make use of waivers that will sidestep more than 30 environmental laws and regulations that could impede construction of the fence, which means almost certain closing for several nature preserves that support a growing ecotourism business in a region desperate for income. The article also mentioned that this was not the first time this tactic was used; previously, the department had used its waiver authority for two portions of fence in Arizona and one portion in San Diego.
So what will the United States gain by building the wall? Nothing positive; it stands to lose a lot more than it will gain. It is already obvious that the reality is a perverse cycle: the only thing all the technology, manpower, infrared equipment and completed parts of the wall have done is to decrease the number of illegal immigrants returning to Mexico and this will - and already has -increase the undocumented population growth in the United States. This in turn results in more and harsher enforcement, a higher number of deaths, and probably higher taxes for the U.S. citizens who will have to foot the bill for the wall and the increased border militarization. Judging from newspaper and television reports on both sides of the border, the harsher enforcement of border security could also increase frequent aggression on the part of U.S. border personnel. There could be more threats, robberies, beatings, discrimination, and dangerous chases, perpetrated not only by criminal elements but also by the Border Patrol itself.
It is obvious that the whole immigration and customs organization in the U.S. is completely overwhelmed with the flow of people across the border, and because most of the time the rules are established without first-hand knowledge of the practical side of this (in Washington and Mexico City), there are continuous conflicts, contradictions, very bad treatment, and a complete lack of understanding which in many cases results in totally un-American behavior by the Americans that are trying to enforce laws which often do not jive with reality. And let’s not forget that the migrants will not only go through, over, or under the wall to find jobs in the United States, but that “approximately 40% of undocumented immigrants enter through our legal ports of entry and remain past the expiration dates of their visas.” (Fence) The fence will not stop that from happening.
Violations of human rights are the result of the actions of the countries of origin, those of destination, and the ones in between. The United States puts in place border protection measures which put in jeopardy the right to life and this has caused the deaths of thousands of immigrants. Mexico has not been able to create a culture of respect for human rights and neither have we been able to train and sensitize those who work for institutions in charge of the defense of migrants, leaving this up to private organizations. As long as there are poor countries bordering rich countries, there is no way to stop immigration. Maybe the billions of dollars the U.S. government is going to spend on the “wall” would be better spent investing in Mexico and/or helping develop agriculture, business, etc. thereby providing jobs which would keep the people from wanting to head north.
I think it is embarrassing to say the least to see that the U.S. Mexico border has become a military zone with Border Patrol agents armed to the teeth driving vehicles equipped with God knows what, helicopters flying so low- occasionally over Mexico - that they stir up the sand below, underground sensors, buses into which the immigrants are herded like cattle, fences, barbed wire, etc.etc. What we need on both sides of the border is an immigration policy that can handle the cross-border movement of people in an effective and humane way. Like it or not, this cross-border flow of people is inevitable in a global economy and repressing it through police action is the most ineffective way to deal with it.
References
Camarota, S. (2004). A Jobless Recovery? Center for Immigration Studies. Washington.
Cooper, M. (2003). The Unintended Consequences of Getting Tough on Illegal Immigration.
Features. LA Weekly. Dec. 5-11.
El Paso Times. April 4, 2008. Rules Will Be Waived to Build Border Fence.
Fence Offensive: A Nineteenth Century ‘Solution’ to a Twenty-First Century Problem. National
Immigration Forum. 2006.
Pomfret, John. (2006) Fence Meets Wall of Skepticism. WashingtonPost.com. Tuesday, October
10, Page A03
Ramos, Jorge. (2008) El muro: tres minutos de retraso. Periodico Excelsior. 01/11/2008.
Reno, Kliff & Campo-Flores (2008) Careful What You Wish For. Newsweek. January 28, P. 36.
Vandalizan y Traspasan el Muro en Columbus. El Diario de Cd. Juarez. Friday April 11, 2008.
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