Geographical Visualizations of the U.S. - Mexico Border

Before Trump took office, there were 654 miles of barrier along the southern border - made up of 354 miles of barriers to stop pedestrians and 300 miles of anti-vehicle fencing (Rodgers, 2019).

Throughout his campaign, Mr. Trump made promises to build a wall along the entire US - Mexico border, a 2,000 mile length total.

Later on, he clarified that the physical boundary would end up only covering about half of that, and would take advantage of natural boundaries like mountains and rivers to address areas where no construction would be added.

However, work on extending the physical barrier between the two countries only started in 2019.

Since January 2017, $9.8 billion had been secured for constructing about 509 miles of a “new border wall system” according to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

So far, only 66 miles of new barrier has been constructed, of which only 9 miles is new secondary barrier, the other 57 miles are replacement barriers.

As of now, the first construction of new barrier has begun in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, specifically in Hidalgo County, where 13 miles of "new levee wall system" is being built. The construction of an additional 11 miles is expected to start this year.

In neighbouring Starr County, Texas, a further 15 miles of "new border wall system" is also planned.

By the end of 2020, CBP says it expects to build an additional 59 miles of wall and 450 miles of "new border wall system" that will include steel-bollard barriers, all-weather roads, lighting, enforcement cameras and other technology (Rodgers, 2019).

Humans have occupied the borderlands of US and Mexico for tens of thousands of years. Many cities and towns that have felt like single communities for decades are now separated by the border. These divisions will only increase with the construction of new physical boundaries between the US and Mexico (Furby, 2019). 

The U.S. - Mexico borderlands traverse six ecoregions that contain vegetation types that including desert scrub, temperate forests and woodlands, semi-desert and plains grasslands, subtropical scrublands, freshwater wetlands, and salt marshes. Additionally, the border bisects the geographic ranges of 1077 native terrestrial and freshwater animal and 429 plant species, including 62 species that are listed as Critically Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (Peters, 2018). 

The border wall will impact water resources in a number of ways. Physical barriers act like dams during the rainy season, which can exacerbate flooding and increase property damage (Parker, 2019). Additionally, when the barrier restricts water flow, it may disrupt farms’ and cities’ access to water as well as worsen water pollution and change groundwater recharge (Weiser, 2017). Regarding plant and animal species, physical boundaries that bisect ecoregions and watersheds would disrupt or impede migrations and cut species off from their nearby reliable water sources (Weiser, 2017).

Disturnell, John. Mapa de los Estados Unidos de Méjico: según lo organizado y definido por las varias actas del congreso de dicha república y construido por las mejores autoridades. New York: J. Disturnell, 1847. Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress,  www.loc.gov/item/2004627240/ . 

“Ecoregions of North America.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 12 Nov. 2016,  www.epa.gov/eco-research/ecoregions-north-america . 

Existing Border Wall. Feature Layer by mlacey7. Created: Jan 31, 2019 Updated: Jan 31, 2019.  https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=9b8e08917a284b3c96bd6cd934b40be4 . 

Furby, Kate. “Thousands of Scientists Object to Trump's Border Wall.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 29 Apr. 2019,  www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/07/24/thousands-of-scientists-object-to-trumps-border-wal 

Karklis, Laris, et al. “Navigating the Border: The Barriers That Define the U.S.-Mexico Borderline.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 17 Oct. 2018,  www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/us-mexico-border-flyover/ .

Limon, Elvia. “How Did the U.S.-Mexico Border Come to Be Where It Is Today? Curious Texas Digs into History.” Dallas News, Dallas News, 24 Aug. 2019,  www.dallasnews.com/news/curious-texas/2018/06/22/how-did-the-u-s-mexico-border-come-to-be-where-it-is-today-curious-texas-digs-into-history/ 

Moritz, John C, et al. “The Wall – An in-Depth Examination of Donald Trump's Border Wall.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network,  www.usatoday.com/border-wall/ .

Parker, Laura. “6 Ways the Border Wall Could Disrupt the Environment.” National Geographic, 10 Jan. 2019,  www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/01/how-trump-us-mexico-border-wall-could-impact-environment-wildlife-water/ 

Peters, Robert, et al. “Nature Divided, Scientists United: US–Mexico Border Wall Threatens Biodiversity and Binational Conservation.” BioScience, vol. 68, no. 10, 24 July 2018, pp. 740–743., doi:10.1093/biosci/biy063.  https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/68/10/740/5057517 . 

Rodgers, Lucy, and Dominic Bailey. “Trump Wall - All You Need to Know about US Border in Seven Charts.” BBC News, BBC, 27 Sept. 2019,  www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46824649 .

“Terrestrial and Freshwater Ecoregions.” Conservation GIS Data - The Nature Conservancy, maps.tnc.org/gis_data.html.  

UNEP-WCMC (2019). Protected Area Profile for Mexico from the World Database of Protected Areas, December 2019. Available at:  www.protectedplanet.net 

UNEP-WCMC (2019). Protected Area Profile for United States of America from the World Database of Protected Areas, December 2019. Available at:  www.protectedplanet.net 

US Mexico Border Crossings and Wall Map. Web Map by CCrepon88. Last Modified: June 6, 2017.  https://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=09f584ea75694957bf93dfdbb6897820 

Weiser, Matt. “Trump's Border Wall Could Have Lasting Effect on Rivers, Water Supply.” Water, News Deeply, 4 May 2017,  www.newsdeeply.com/water/community/2017/04/24/trumps-border-wall-could-have-lasting-effect-on-rivers-water-supply