At first glance, Starr County, Texas, is a quiet place.
Its gently rolling hills are covered with mesquite trees and low shrubs, crossed by small ravines and streams, and many of its towns look like something out of old Western movies.
The border with Mexico is never far away. On quiet days in towns like Roma, residents and visitors can hear loud chatter, children playing, or roosters crowing across the Rio Grande.
For decades, the county’s environment, its proximity to the river and access to highways have made it a busy crossing point for migrants and, now, at the center of the heated debate over border security in the United States.
President Joe Biden’s government announced a few weeks ago that it will build a new stretch of approximately 32 km of border wall in the area. An announcement that contrasts with the statement of the then candidate Biden in 2020 that he would not build “not one more meter of wall” as president. He stopped construction on his first day in office.
Although President Biden and administration officials claim that the new section of the border wall is being built reluctantly – due to funds allocated by the Donald Trump administration in 2019 – the announcement once again sparked intense debate over the controversial measure. border control that was an emblematic policy of then-President Trump.
The effectiveness or otherwise of border walls in containing the migratory flow has become a heated and intensely political debate.
Are the barriers efficient?
Department of Homeland Security data released in late 2020 reveals that The new walls reduced illegal entry in some sectors by almost 90%. Academic studies, meanwhile, have suggested more modest results.
An analysis of Cato Institute data, for example, notes that the Border Patrol recorded more successful apprehensions and illegal crossings even before the Trump administration ended, suggesting that the wall was ultimately unsuccessful.
A third report, published in the American Economic Review: Applied Economics, found that border barriers reduced migration by 35%. However, the study found no data to suggest that barriers were more effective than using funding to hire more border agents.
The Biden administration, for its part, has repeatedly and unequivocally stated that it does not believe the barriers are effective.
Doris Meissner, former commissioner of the defunct US Immigration and Naturalization Service, told the BBC that Barriers can be effective in “redirecting” migrant flows to areas that are easier to patrol.
“The idea of having a barrier there [en el condado de Starr] is that Border Patrol agents and vehicles do not have to be distributed over enormous distances, but rather over distances that people cross,” explained Meissner, who now works at the Migration Policy Institute, based in Washington, DC. “That seems to be what they are thinking with this proposal.”
They are not impenetrable
The term “wall” itself is wrong. On its website, the Border Patrol (CBP) considers the border barrier to range from picket fences to concrete and steel levees or “Normandy barriers,” which consist of large metal barricades designed to stop intrusions of vehicles, but passable for people on foot.
According to this organization, The new wall construction will consist of 18-foot (5.4 m) steel fence panels set into portable concrete barriers, reinforced with “sensing technology” and lighting.
Experts point out that even Sectors with high and solid barriers are by no means impenetrable. Migrants often find a way to climb over barriers using ladders or ropes or by cutting or climbing through them.
“In reality it is more of an obstacle. It will probably only take a few more minutes to enter the United States“says Adam Isacson, researcher at the WOLA study center (The Washington Office on Latin America).
“This is by no means an insurmountable barrier. It is more difficult to pass children, or the elderly or disabled, and many more people die or are seriously injured when falling. But it doesn’t seem to deter people.”
The walls, Isaacson adds, are also “irrelevant if your goal is to turn yourself in” and formally request asylum, which in recent months has constituted a “significant majority” of the total number of immigration detentions. Once across the international border, asylum seekers can legally challenge deportation.
Along the border, where communities are accustomed to being on the front lines of the immigration debate, The news about the expansion of the fence raises mixed feelings.
Several residents of border towns told the BBC that, although they want a strong border, they oppose a wall. Others are open to the idea, but are concerned about how it will be implemented.
One of them, Eagle Pass activist Jessie Fuentes, said he “fought hard” against previous border wall efforts but ultimately found the barriers “well designed” and “strategically placed.”
“Fences serve a purpose,” he said. “If it’s going to help Border Patrol enforcement or establish a route where migrants can find shelter or relief, then it’s a good thing….”
Alex Garcia, a resident of Webb County — which borders Starr County — said he “understands” the need for a barrier, but He is concerned that migrants could “get hurt” trying to cross and the environmental impact.
As a concept, border “walls” predate both Biden and former President Trump. All recent US presidents have built or improved parts of the barriers along the borderincluding 128 miles built during the Obama administration.
These barriers, experts point out, have had little long-term impact on migratory flows. and in the reasons that ultimately determine how many migrants arrive at the US-Mexico border.
Arturo Sarukhán, who was Mexico’s ambassador to the United States between 2007 and 2013, stated that “You cannot force your way out of a migration crisis.”.
“You cannot face the challenges of the 21st century with solutions from the 1st century BC”he claimed.
“The only effect this will have is to further increase the profits of organized crime engaged in human smuggling and trafficking, and fruitless games with migratory flows and crossing patterns that will cause them to move towards more dangerous border areas. ”.
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