Student Slideshows Arizona 2011: Austin Siadek

Border Security

Text and photos by Austin Siadak

The desert of Southern Arizona is a place of harsh juxtapositions. Blistering white-hot days fade into bitterly cold black nights. Jagged mountains erupt out of flat sands. Brilliant blue and red flowers burst from drab browns and mauves. And in recent years, a tall steel wall and wide, new dirt road cut through previously undeveloped desert plains.

The U.S. government began to construct walls along urban areas of the U.S.-Mexico border in the 1990s to deter illegal immigration. Prior to this, much of the border line was nothing more than wire fencing and cement monuments, and rate of illegal migrants surged and declined throughout the 1970s and 80s based on Mexico’s economy and U.S. immigration and amnesty policies. In the mid-1990s though, following the collapse of the Mexican economy, the promise of increasing one’s income ten-fold by merely ducking under a few strands of barbed wire was a strong incentive for hundreds of thousands of Mexicans to make the journey north.

Made from surplus steel “landing mats” left over from the Vietnam War, the walls first came to Arizona in 1994 and were installed in urban areas such as Nogales and Douglas. For the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), the federal agency charged with monitoring the country’s borders, the idea was that new barriers and security in border towns and cities would force migrants and smugglers into unforgiving, uninhabited desert stretches where CBP agents could better track them down.

Border security measures exploded between 2000 and 2010 as the U.S. government more than doubled both the annual budget of the CBP and the number of agents who monitor the border. After the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, the issue of border security took on an added sense of urgency.

The border walls were extended into the desert for miles past their previous stopping points, and jagged steel “Normandy” barriers were erected to prevent vehicles from crossing the into the U.S. Surveillance towers equipped with high-resolution cameras and thermal imaging equipment sprouted up across the desert; CBP checkpoints appeared on major northbound arteries. Mobile floodlights and deep trenches emerged just inside the border fence, seismic sensors were placed in the ground along popular immigrant and smuggling paths, and over 500 National Guard troops were deployed to Arizona to support the CBP.

Last year, the CBP spent over $3 billion policing the country’s borders, and more than 17,500 agents patrolled the Southwest border. In some areas, CBP agents outnumber residents, their white and green SUVs ubiquitous against the landscape. New construction continues to push the reinforced steel wall further and further into the desert hills.

And yet, despite the billions of dollars spent to expand the border fence, deploy thousands of new CBP agents to the Southwest border, and utilize sophisticated technologies and aerial surveillance, it is still hard to say whether the CBP is succeeding in preventing persons, goods and drugs from entering the country illegally. Larger fences and increased security in urban areas have greatly diminished the number of migrants crossing into cities and towns: overall apprehensions in Arizona dropped from over 720,000 in 2000 to less than 220,000 in 2010. But even CBP officials acknowledge that most migrants and smugglers simply walk to the end of the walls and cross where the only obstacles are vehicle barriers and barbed wire fence. Despite fewer apprehensions, no one knows the more important figure: the number of people who illegally cross the border and are not get caught. Is the huge decrease in apprehensions due to heightened security measures or to other factors, such as the collapse of the U.S. economy that has left far fewer jobs for new migrants?

Even as federal border security efforts grow, so has discontent with the government’s efforts. Over the last decade, Arizona has seen the rise of numerous civilian vigilante groups who feel the government has failed to adequately protect the border. Using their own resources, they monitor the border through video and aerial surveillance, as well as foot patrols in the desert. Some wish to see the wall extended along the entire Southwest border.

Ultimately, however, not even the most radical vigilantes believe that the U.S. can reduce the number of illegal immigrants or pounds of drugs smuggled to zero. How many would be acceptable? Few citizens, politicians, and activists can agree on such a number, yet almost everyone acknowledges that the current system is far too porous and needs improvement. Some speak of solving the problem by reducing the incentives to cross the border in the first place. But that will always be difficult when an immigrant can earn in the U.S. many times that which they made back home.

Current policy appears bent on continuing to build new walls, though it is doubtful that fencing the entire stretch would stop illegal immigration and smuggling completely – already tunnels have appeared under the walls in places such as Tijuana and Nogales. Likely, many more billions of dollars will be spent trying to stop immigrants, who earn only a few dollars a day, from stepping across the line in the sand.

Return to the 2011 Workshop page: Immigration on the US-Mexico Border