The first wall that was placed at the USA border was swallowed up by the desert. This desert was pristine before the antics of placing a wall.
The thing is this, it is a political wall. It was placed their by a hostile Congress to poke conservationists in the eye. If one peruse the annals of the New York Times, one will find a myriad of articles about this desert and the people that died there.
There was no reason to spend all that money for a 'sink proof' wall. This is a political wall in the desert. All that had to be done was to prohibit water stations in the desert to prohibit migration of people that might cross there.
People got upset about the illegals crossing and dying. So, there were some Americans that got together and interested in humanitarian causes placed water stations at critical places in the desert. It was never the intention to encourage illegal immigration, but, it was their intention to keep them allve while they were crossing the desert. Their disposition after they made the walk (it is very difficult to walk on sand, especially desert sand that is not saturated with tidal waters) was entirely up to the law.
The illegal immigrants are still dying because they now come across a wall they cannot climb. They have to walk along the wall for a weakness or return to Mexico. They don't necessarily make it. So, the idea that the USA is not killing people with it's desert wall and the illegals are returning back to Mexico to tell their tale is very naive.
There are many ways of ending the migration north to the USA. It begins with border guards to return people to their homelands and ends with a vibrant Mexican economy void of drug cartels. The only way the end to drug cartels is going to happen is to legalize drugs in the USA with supervision by MDs.
It took California three tries before they found a solution to their illegal crossings. It was expensive.
So, the illegal crossing of our southern border is very complicated. No wall is the absolute answer. And the cost to the USA in building and maintaining it is significant.
FY (fiscal year) 2016 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill is approved in subcommittee. (click here)
