Kyong 1

Daniel Kyong

Ms. Jorgensen

English 10 Honors, P1

30 April 2019

United States-Mexico Border Wall Crisis

The infamous Trump Wall, a colloquial name for the United States-Mexico border

expansion project proposed during the Trump-Pence presidential campaign of 2016. The current

barrier, a 654 mile long series of vertical fences, is not a formation, but a sporadic series of

man-made and natural obstructions designed to reduce illegal immigration into the United States.

However, like many other border walls, the current wall proves to be ineffective at limiting the

myriad of illegal activities happening at the wall, leading to President Trump utilizing executive

orders such as the Declaration of National Emergency in order to allocate the proper resources

needed to improve on the wall. Ultimately, though, while there are obvious benefits of a more

effective wall including reduced immigration, limited exchange of illegal products, etc, the

proposed border wall improvements and the steps being taken to achieve it is environmentally,

economically, and ethically ineffective and hazardous to the United States.

The current proposed plan for the wall includes building 1000 miles of wall and

reinforcing the 654 existing miles of barrier. However, this plan fails to recognize the substantial

environmental consequences of building and maintaining a larger, sturdier wall. Aylin

Woodward, a science and environment reporter for Business Insider, states “The carbon

emissions from constructing Trump's proposed 1,000 miles of new border wall could top 7.8

million metric tons” (Woodward 18). Every cubic meter of concrete that’s poured into a wall or
 Kyong 2

structure results in roughly 380 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions, according to ​a study

from the University of Bath in the UK. Producing 1 kilogram of steel also emits 1.8 kilograms of

carbon dioxide, according to ​MIT Technology Review​.

Based on those numbers, MIT Tech Review ​calculated​ how much carbon dioxide would

be emitted total from the construction of a 1,000-mile wall. By their estimate, it'd be 50 feet tall

with an additional 15 feet underground, and one-foot thick. Such a wall would need 9.7 million

cubic meters of concrete and 2.3 billion kilograms of steel. So in total, that'd create 7.8 million

metric tons of carbon dioxide — the equivalent of 877,686,508 gallons of gasoline, according to

the Environmental Protection Agency​. The US-Mexico border is nearly 2,000 miles long and

peppered with marshes, deserts, and grasslands. The construction of a continuous wall could

therefore harm species who are, of course, not on the administration’s immigration radar.

More than 1,500 species of flora and fauna, like the Peninsular bighorn sheep shown above,

make their homes along this biologically diverse strip of North America. Sixty-two of these

species are considered vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered by the ​International

Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)​. And many of those species would face extirpation —

meaning local extinction in the US — if they were unable to access habitats and resources on

either side of the border, according to a ​study from Stanford University​. The statistics clearly

show that the majority of immigrants aren’t coming into the United States through the Mexican

border. It is a better use of tax-paying dollars to enforce harsher policies on visa-overstaying

rather than on a border wall that will prevent a small portion of illegal immigration. The wall has

disastrous effects on the environment. The evidence shows that the wall itself will affect

hundreds of species, that will be unable to cross between their natural lands, and therefore be
 Kyong 3

forced to relocate and even disappear as a species. Furthermore, the building and maintaining of

the wall is environmentally damaging from the Earth, as the statistics show immense amounts of

carbon and other hazardous pollutants. The US economy loses $4 billion a year as a result of this

wall, showing it is a bad investment on the US economy. This money can be better spent

elsewhere such as educational reform, restructuring of infrastructure, and more. “On top of the

cost to build the wall, the U.S. economy would lose more than $4 billion a year, the economists

calculated, meaning the country would forfeit nearly $30,000 in lost economic output for each

Mexican migrant the wall stops” (Allen 35). The majority of illegal immigrants do not enter the

United States through the California/Texas-Mexican border. Immigrants enter the United States

through legal ways such as educational and job occupancy visas, and overstay. Therefore,

spending billions of dollars on a border wall that only restricts a small portion of illegal

immigration is ineffective and unnecessary. President Trump’s border plan includes building

1000 miles of wall and reinforcing the 654 existing miles of barriers. However, this plan fails to

recognize the environmental impacts of building and maintaining a wall. The National Public

Radio states “When it comes to people in the country without proper documentation, the

majority of them didn't cross the Mexican border at all. Most of them came to the United States

legally — but then don't leave” (Klahr, McMinn 7). Furthermore, in fiscal 2017, 670,000 of the

9,681,913 issued people who were issued visas overstayed.

 Kyong 4

Works Cited

Ashmore, John. “The Economic Impact of a Border Wall.” ​CapX​, 5 Apr. 2019, capx.co/the-stagg

ering-economic-impact-of-trumps-border-wall/.

Bosque, Melissa. “Back to the Wall.” ​Texas Monthly​, vol. 46, no. 12, Dec. 2018, pp. 58–72.

EBSCOhost​, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asm&AN

=133152846&site=ehost-live.

Dierker, Benjamin R. “3 Benefits Of A Border Wall That No One Is Talking About.” ​The

Federalist,​ 22 June 2018, thefederalist.com/2018/06/20/3-benefits-border-

wall-no-one-talking/.

Fisher, David. “The U.S.-Mexico Border Wall and the Case for ‘Environmental Rights.’” ​Texas

International Law Journal,​ vol. 50, no. 1, Winter 2015, pp. 145–168. ​EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asm&AN=101700041&site=ehost-live

Flores, Esteban. “Walls of Separation: An Analysis of Three ‘Successful’ Border Walls.”

Harvard International Review​, vol. 38, no. 3, Summer 2017, pp. 10–12. ​EBSCOhost,​

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asm&AN=123620519&site=ehost-live

Gonzalez-Barrera, Ana, and Jens Manuel Krogstad. “What We Know about Illegal Immigration

from Mexico.” ​Pew Research Center​, 3 Dec. 2018,

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/12/03/what-we-know-about-illegal-immigra

tion-from-mexico/.

Paynter, Eleanor. “Europe's Refugee Crisis Proves Trump's Border Wall Wouldn't Work.”

Quartz​, 30 Jan. 2019, ​https://qz.com/1537934/europes-refugee-crisis-​proves-trumps-

border-wall-wouldnt-work/.
 Kyong 5

“Should the United States Continue to Build a Fence or Wall along the US/Mexico Border?”

What Are the Solutions to Illegal Immigration in America?​, 26 Apr. 2017,

immigration.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000778.