IMMIGRATION

Can Donald Trump build a border wall with Mexico? He'd have to tackle this

Caitlin McGlade, and Nate Kelly
The Arizona Republic
Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump during a visit to Arizona.

Presidential candidate Donald Trump has consistently stressed that he would build a wall between the United States and Mexico.

What would that mean for nearly 2,000 miles of diverse terrain, communities and wildlife? We talked to law enforcement, academics, policy experts and activists. We researched border security. Then we created a virtual tour of the border to find out.

Before the 1990s, the border was permeable, even in large cities. Workers would cross seasonally, some slipping into the U.S. unnoticed, others staging rushes.

Economic advancement was limited below the border, in part because the North American Free Trade Agreement brought heavily subsidized U.S. corn into Mexico and widespread privatization of Mexican farmland, said Michelle Téllez, a professor of Sociology and Ethnic Studies at Northern Arizona University.

But then came Operation Gatekeeper and Hold the Line, which erected walls made of old Vietnam War landing mats and beefed-up security in Tijuana and El Paso.  Within months, illegal crossings in El Paso went from up to 10,000 a day to 500, according to the Associated Press.

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Much has changed since. The unauthorized immigrant population has leveled for the past five years, following a sharp increase for two decades, according to the Pew Research Organization. Border Patrol apprehensions have declined to historic lows. But National Border Patrol Council spokesperson Shawn Moran said “it’s not true at all” that illegal immigration is down. The number of people that elude the patrol has remained the same and increased in some areas, he said.

The government has waived 36 laws, sued homeowners, severed twin communities and spent billions of dollars to build the fencing that exists today. Only about 350 miles of that is pedestrian fencing that could be described as a wall. Another 300 miles of border is covered by vehicle barriers, which block cars but not necessarily people on foot.

Join us as we travel from one end of the other — through mountain ranges, sand dunes, the Colorado River Delta, deserts and miles of the Rio Grande. We'll talk about the recent history of our border, the challenges that different regions face, what works or what doesn't, and learn from the experts about what really happens down there.

In the end, it's up to you to decide: Do you think we need a wall? And do you think we could build it?

Donald Trump sees a wall between Mexico, U.S. and ... reality