No Wall - More Facts

I have spent my professional life devoted to discovering facts and reporting them to the public.  I was a journalist and then a science writer. Facts matter.  The truth matters. 

This is why a wall should not be built

The effort to limit drugs with a wall would be ineffective. The heroin that comes across our border is mostly coming in vehicles that come through our checkpoints. This has been reported in USA Today (June, 2014): “Most is hidden in vehicles crossing through ports of entry like the bustling Nogales gate. Smaller amounts are carried in on foot by men dubbed "mules," hiking established desert smuggling routes. Some is ferried in by plane or boat.” Also, Politifact, (February, 2018) reports: “Trump’s opioid commission says many users are ordering the pill-form of fentanyl online and having it shipped discreetly. The commission’s report references a Carnegie Mellon University study which found that revenues from online illicit drug sales increased from between $15-17 million in 2012 to $150-$180 million in 2015.”

As reported on DELPHI (a behavioral health group) website: “Based on the reports from the 2017 NDTA (National Drug Threat Assessment), there are eight primary Mexican cartels controlling production and distribution through hubs in major U.S. cities. While these illicit opioids are still frequently smuggled across the southwest border of the U.S. in regular cars as well as tractor trailers, it is becoming more common for heroin to be trafficked into the country by air and sea, specifically in the northeast New England area. This is a significant factor in why heroin overdose deaths are clustered in that region since states like New Jersey, Maryland, and New Hampshire are all along major trafficking routes.”

The Economist (Nov. 2018) concluded that, “the available evidence suggests that a wall would have no effect on heroin supplies.”

Another myth often touted as a reason for a wall is that thousands of kids are sex trafficked.  Once again, facts matter.  Sex trafficking must be distinguished from human smuggling. The former occurs all over the US with young people tricked or forced into the sex trade.  The latter is the term that implies the transport of people against their will for nefarious purposes, including the sex trade, forced labor, etc.  Conflating the two does a disserve to both groups. Also, people are generally smuggled into the US as forced labor, though trafficking does sometimes involve smuggling. As reported by CNN, June 2017: The National Human Trafficking Hotline shows most reports of human trafficking are from the border states of California (1,323 in 2016) and Texas (670 in 2016) But when you divide the number of reports by the total population, the District of Columbia actually has the most reported cases of human trafficking per capita, according to data from the NHTH.

Next to address the question of what illegal immigration costs the US.  As a reporter I had a love/hate relationship with numbers because, like statistics, they could be twisted.  However, one cannot simply pluck a number out of thin air, as our current president often does.  This is the best I could quickly establish: In Politifact, a 2013 report from Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group seeking reduced immigration came up with the $113 billion figure based on a pool of 13 million people in the country illegally. It includes at least 3.4 million children who are U.S. citizens born to undocumented parents. That total estimate is higher than figures estimated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, about 11.4 million by January 2012. Pew Research Center estimated there were 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants in 2014. Even The Heritage Foundation, famously conservative, reported that there are approximately 3.7 million unlawful immigrant households in the U.S. These households impose a net fiscal burden of around $54.5 billion per year. This also includes 4 million children – US citizens – born to illegals in their calculation.

 Also, a report from the Center for Migration Studies estimated that about two-thirds of those who join the undocumented population each year are people overstaying their visa, a situation a wall cannot remedy.

Some conclude that illegal immigration is a serious threat to our country, that a wall is the answer, and our government should be shut down until funding for it is authorized. In light of these facts, I hesitate to draw the same conclusion.  

About 60 percent of the unauthorized population has been here for at least a decade, according to the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. A third of undocumented immigrants 15 and older lives with at least one child who is a United States citizen by birth. Slightly more than 30 percent own homes. Only a tiny fraction has been convicted of felonies or serious misdemeanors. This is not to minimize the danger but to put it in perspective.  

Also, a wall would present a serious ecological issue. In Scientific American: Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said even the existing barriers along the border have led to erosion and flooding in border communities as well as a roadblock for the natural movement of wildlife across the border. Environmental groups say that migration corridors are crucial for the recovery and survival of wildlife along the border. As a science writer for the University of Georgia, our scientists often reported on exactly this issue, though usually on a smaller scale. 

My conclusion (opinion) is that this is a complicated, multi-faceted issue and a wall of any description is no panacea. Obviously, more border security in the form of agents trained to find drugs is needed. We should address the cartels, step up air and water protections, and develop a policy that is not “America-First” but multi-national, because the problem is multi-national.  We live in a technological world and need to address online drug sales. We need to consider both human life and our environment because the former is dependent on the latter. 

Ultimately, facts matter.  Science matters.  We cannot afford to throw money at ineffective non-solutions that may even make matters worse.  We have to be smart, not just partisan.