The Mexico wall also known as Mexico – United States barrier
is a series of walls and fences that apart the United States border and Mexico.
The main purpose behind building this wall is to prevent illegal crossing from Mexico to United States and vice versa and to prevent the
smuggling and other illegal things. The wall or barrier consists of group of
small physical walls and secured in between with virtual fence. Virtual fence consists of high-tech censors
and monitoring cameras which are controlled by United States Border patrol.
This wall is covering almost 930 km of area.
This barrier had started from 1994 and was one of the
largest operations to tackle with the transportation of illegal drugs
manufactured in Latin America and immigration. The three of them are Operation
gatekeeper in California, Operation hold the line Texas and operation safeguard
in Arizona.
1954-mile (3,145 km) border between US and Mexico passes a
variety of Terrains that includes both desert and urban areas. The areas where
more concentrated number of illegal crosses and drug trafficking are found
include San Diego, California, El Paso, Texas. The Fence has been completed in
New Mexico, Arizona and California and in Texas the work is underway.
Environmental Impact
In April 2008, Homeland Security Department announced their
plans to waive around 30 environmental and cultural laws to speed up the
construction of the barrier and also announced the plans to minimize the impact
of the construction on the environment. United States custom and Border
Protection department also conducted an environmental review study to review
each vehicle and pedestrian fence segment covered by waiver and present their
study to Environmental Stewardship Plans. One more study is conducted by CBP
related to the local wildlife. ESP then
analyzes the studies and dismisses the potential for most adverse effects based
on sweeping generalization, without any quantitative analysis of any risks by
barriers. Around 461 vegetation acres was cleared along the impact corridor.
Till august 2008 around 90 percent of the southern border in
Arizona and New Mexico has been surveyed.
