Everything you Need to Know about the US-Mexico Border Wall

You might think the US-Mexico wall is the first of its kind, or maybe that Donald Trump was a pioneer when he signed the wall executive order. If these are your ideas, let me tell you that you are mistaken. Building a wall on the US-Mexico border is not a new invention. Several walls were built between countries during history for several reasons. Until the end of the 20th century, the sole idea of building walls was the protect a country from its enemies; however, the reasons started to change by the new millennium. Today, anti-illegal immigration and anti-terrorism are the main reasons to build walls between countries.

Historical Glance on Prior Walls Costs

Looking backwards you will find many walls that were built in ancient time, one of those is the Great Wall of China. The Great Wall of China is a composition of several walls built to mark the territories of China. The first wall was built by some unified states to protect them against other warring states in the 7^th century BC. The total length of the walls was 17ooo Miles with width of 4-5 meters, and 7-8 meters height. That size made it one of the world wonders. Despite the fact that it is impossible to know how much does that branched building cost, some people estimate the cost in different means. A famous research estimated the cost by $360B, which is by a simple calculation- cost $21M a mile, sounds exaggeration? Maybe, but regarding the thickness of the wall, the huge amount of rock stones used in the building and the high number of used labor may be logical. Most of the wall is demolished now, and it is only used currently as a touristic destination.

Coming back to the 20th century, Berlin wall is the second most famous wall. It was built in 1961 by the Eastern Germany government to separate them from the west. The length of the wall was 96 miles and 12 ft. height, 300 watch towers and 79 miles of fencing. According to Kate Drew, CNBC reporter, the wall cost $25 million by that time, which is $200M by today prices. By using your calculator it cost about 2M per mile by today’s price. It considered to be a low cost compared to the Chinese Great Wall and the Israeli-Egyptian Fence.

In 2010 Israeli law makers approved the build of 152 Miles fence with the Egyptian border, to stop the high level of immigration coming from Africa through the Egyptian borders. The fence cost $452 Million. By a simple calculation it cost 3 million per mile.

Trump’s Executive Order Obstacles

On January 25^th 2017 President Trump signed the executive order regarding the continuation of the southern border wall, but first let me tell you the meaning of the executive order. The USA constitution allows the president to execute the laws passed by the congress – that’s why they call it executive authority, so the president is not executing his own ideas. The order holds the number 13767 for the Secure Fence Act passed in 2006. The allocated budget after the law ratifying was $1.2B to build 700 miles wall. Today the total executed area according to the homeland security department is 640 miles out of 1989 miles, which is the total length of the US Mexican borders.

Trump’s plan is characterized by its ambiguity. I cannot blame him for protecting the country from drug smugglers and illegal immigrants; nevertheless, I do not understand his insistence on bearing Mexico the cost of the wall. From one hand we hear that he will demand $1.2B before the congress as he recently said “I can build it inexpensive”, from the other hand he threats Mexico by a very sharp words. Moreover, Mexico is under constant pressure as Trump mentioned the possibility of withdrawing them from NAFTA and imposing big taxes on the imported goods from Mexico, same as what happened with the TTP. For months, I was very confused by Paranoiac position, but the next few lines will clarify why Trump was so keen that Mexico will pay the cost of the wall instead of the US government.

Some voices out of the Democratic Party say that they intend to give the Republicans a punch back. Next April on the 28^th Trump will demand the required funds to built the wall. The same situation occurred in 2013 and so the Trump administration may face the shutdown again.

There are probabilities that the democrats may not pass the budget of the next fiscal year if Trump will demand money for the wall, especially if some republicans are not in the same trench with him. The shutdown usually occurs when there is a conflict between the executing and legislative branch regarding the funding to create the “funding Gap”. That happened during the Obama presidency, when the republicans had the majority of the house. Then, it happened because of the Obama Care Act, and more than 2 million of the Federal employees found themselves out of work for about 16 days. This will be the biggest block in the history since the next session to discuss the new year budget will be in September.

By looking to the second scenario, we will find that experts’ estimations for the demanded amount to finish the wall vary between $6B to $21B. If we look to the first phase of the building(640 miles) the cost of one mile is $4 Million. So for the remaining distance of 1349 miles the cost will be another $4 Billion, that is the required amount to built a wall.

The obstacles of US-Mexico wall will weigh on Trump’s administration and the US economy. It’s a classic case of politics and economy integration. Trump needs to pass a law that is fairly expensive and is not entirely accepted by all sides. Yet, Trump is Trump and he wants to ‘make America great again’.