This is part 2 of a series. Read part 1: A Deluge of Illegal Facts.

The United States-Mexico border runs for 2000 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. There are 250 million legal crossings each year, making it the busiest international land border in the world. Not counted in that statistic are more than 500,000 illegal crossings each year.

The Border Fence

In 2006, Congress and the Bush administration approved 700 miles of new fencing on the border, along with a $1.2 billion down payment. But people who know the border know this: while a fence may slow down the illegal traffic, it won’t stop it.

And the price to American taxpayers (and their grandchildren) is huge.

The new fence will actually be a double fence in many areas, separated by a cleared 100 yard border zone. And, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, it will cost $1.2 million per mile to build. Figuring in maintenance costs for 25 years, the pricetag jumps to between $16 million and $70 million per mile. To adequately fence the entire 2000 miles? That comes to a bare minimum of $32 billion, thank you very much.

Border Tunnels

While you’re pondering that shiny new fence, and hoping that it’s never used to keep Americans in instead of keeping foreigners out, think about this: As the fence goes up, illegal traffic goes down — not only down in numbers, but down as in “underground.”

During this decade, over 20 tunnels have been discovered beneath the existing fence in San Diego. One such tunnel was almost a half mile long and ran to a depth of 60 feet. The 4 by 6 foot tunnel, which had a concrete floor and electricity, began near the Tijuana airport and ended beneath a loose tile floor in a modern U.S. warehouse.

The cost to seal this tunnel, and another one like it? $500,000 in engineering and labor costs. And as soon as contractors seal a tunnel, somewhere in the night a section of fence is being destroyed with blow torches and hacksaws…

Border Field State Park

The US-Mexico border crawls out of the Pacific Ocean at Border Field State Park, which splits the beach between Tijuana and San Diego. The location of the border was set by a joint Mexican and American survey group after the Mexican-American War ended in 1848. After taking 500,000 acres from Mexico (40% of its territory), the US gave Mexico $15 million so there wouldn’t be any hard feelings.

In 1851, the U.S. erected a marble obelisk and a park at the site to mark the southwestern corner of our nation, and to proclaim our friendship with Mexico. Later, to further celebrate our friendship, a border fence was erected right over the top of the friendship monument.

Today, the beach section of the fence is frequently damaged by storms. People freely walk through to test the waters on the U.S. side of the beach, or to buy roasted corn and Coca-colas from venders near the Tijuana bullring. As long as visitors don’t wander too far or stay too long, the ever-present Border Patrol usually doesn’t get involved.

The Sonora Desert

East of San Diego and into Arizona, the border runs through the Sonora Desert and mountain country.

As bigger fences are erected near the border’s high-traffic areas, more and more illegal immigrants risk crossing the border in Sonora. There, they not only have to cross the international border; they have to also cross one of the largest and harshest deserts in North America. With temperatures climbing to 120 degrees in the summer, many immigrants try to make the multiple-day journey on foot carrying just a gallon of water. As a result, hundreds of immigrants die from heat stroke and dehydration each year.

Heaps and heaps of discarded trash are another result of the desert’s increased traffic.

Hired guides, known as “coyotes”, lead groups of as many as 100 illegal immigrants to areas known as “lay up” sites. Once there, the immigrants change clothes and discard travel items before being picked up by helpers in vans and trucks who shuttle them to Tucson and other cities. Many lay up sites are located in once-pristine wildlife refuges…refuges which are now carpeted with thousands of backpacks, water bottles, sweaters, razors, cell phones, rope, batteries, food containers, and human waste.

In the Tucson sector of Arizona alone, agents apprehend 1,500 illegal immigrants each day. That many people discard a lot of garbage. Last year, the Arizona Bureau of Land Management spent nearly $1 million to clean up over a million pounds of trash. And that’s only a fraction of what gets left behind each year.

Nogales, Arizona

As the border approaches Nogales, Arizona, the dilapidated barbed wire fence becomes a metal wall again. The fence winds through town, along streets and backyards.

On any given night, border crossers trigger security sensors along the fence. The sensors alert border agents who employ night-vision video cameras, flashlights, and bicycles in an endless effort to stem the wave of illegal immigrants that surges through town each night.

New Mexico, Chihuahua, and Drugs

From Arizona, the border runs into New Mexico, which shares an 180 mile boundary with the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

Along this border, the city of Columbus, New Mexico, is just two miles away from Palomas, Mexico. Because of recent drug-related violence, parents are keeping their children out of school, and deputies have begun routinely carrying assault rifles.

Cocaine is the source of the violence between drug cartels in Mexico. And, while Mexico does little to stem the northward flow of illegal cocaine traffic, the United States does little to stop the southward flow of guns from the U.S. that end up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels and gangs.

Surpisingly, one of the biggest customers of Mexican drugs aren’t criminals: the economy of Palomas is heavily dependant on U.S. senior citizens who cross the border for cheap medication and dental work.

Trouble in Texas

The state with the longest Mexican border is Texas. And, as is befitting the largest border state, Texas has the most corruption cases against border guards for accepting bribes, offering aid, and profitting from a $5 billion human smuggling business.

Texas also has the most outspoken opposition to the new fence construction.

For example, there’s the case of Eloisa Tamez:

Tamez owns three acres of land along the Texas-Mexico border where the Department of Homeland Security would like to build a border fence. The property is a remnant of a 12,000-acre grant from Spain to her family in 1767, before the United States even existed.

And then there’s the case of the fence at the University of Texas at Brownsville, which might separate the university from its golf course, and leave the outfield of its baseball park amutated.

The Department of Homeland Security is also facing more border fence suits filed by the city of El Paso, a local Indian tribe, two West Texas water improvement districts, and several environmental groups.

The End of the Border

At the Gulf of Mexico near Brownsville, the border once again runs into an ocean. And what can now be said?

Even people who have lived on the border their whole life will tell you it’s hard to define. A marble obelisk — or even a hundred yard no man’s land between two chain link fences — doesn’t do the job. One country doesn’t run right up to the edge of another country and stop; the two bleed into each other, and even with a fence in place, both societies mix, creating a unique cultural region that extends for hundreds of miles on either side of the survey line.

And fences? Fences work, and they don’t work too. As for stopping illegal immigration, a bigger fence is only a speedbump. But speedbumps do have their place. Whether a border fence has its place may take years to discover.

Coming soon: Illegal Immigration Part 3: Chasing Hope.

Read More: illegal immigration, border fence, us mexico border, illegal crossings, illegal traffic, border zone, Mexico, Border Field State Park, Sonora Desert

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