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As the government shutdown over Trump's border wall rages, a journey along the entire 1,933-mile US-Mexico border shows the monumental task of securing it

border wall map full border
  • The US government is currently shut down because President Donald Trump is demanding billions of dollars to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, and Congress won't fund it.
  • Of the 1,933 miles along the border, 1,279 miles is unfenced.
  • Most of the barrier that currently exists, and that the Trump administration has built, isn't the high concrete wall Trump talked about on the campaign trail, and instead resembles a fence.

From western California to eastern Texas, across four US states and 24 counties, the 1,933-mile US-Mexico border criss-crosses arid desert, rugged mountains, and winding rivers.

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For 654 of those miles, fencing separates the two countries from each other.

The 7.3 million people who live in the border counties on each side of the line have watched for years as security grew tighter and illegal crossings tapered off.

In just the last 12 years, the US government built the barriers, deployed troops, and started using advanced surveillance technology all in an effort to tame and control some of the wildest and remotest land in the United States.

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Today, in an effort to make good on campaign promises to "build that wall," President Donald Trump has refused to back down on his demand that Congress allocate $5 billion for the project, plunging the government into a days-long shutdown after Senate Democrats refused to back a spending bill with the wall funding.

Democrats, who take back the House of Representatives in January, have long opposed Trump's wall and placed the blame for the shutdown on Trump.

The shutdown comes amid controversy over US immigration and border policies, after two young migrant children died in Border Patrol custody this month.

The deaths also come on the heels of outrage over the Trump administration's family separation policy over the summer, which split thousands of children from their parents.

With public outrage has growing toward the government's immigration policies, it's worth taking a look at the complexity of the borderlands to understand the daunting task of securing them.

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From the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east, here's what the entire US-Mexico border looks like.

Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and OpenStreetMap contributors; Skye Gould/Andy Kiersz/Business Insider

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Getty Images/John Moore

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Reuters/Mike Blake

Source: USA Today

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Google Maps

Getty Images/Sandy Huffaker

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Door openings have been a recurring event since 2013, allowing families separated by the border to briefly reunite. Last November, there was even a controversial marriage ceremony.

Getty Images/John Moore

The chief of the San Diego Border Patrol sector announced in January that the door will now be used "for maintenance purposes only," and some suspect that the unexpected cross-border wedding had something to do with it.

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The American groom, Brian Houston, had been convicted for drug smuggling and couldn't cross into Tijuana to wed his Mexican bride. Yet when Border Patrol conducted a federal background check on him to participate in the late-2017 ceremony, no red flags came up.

So when news surfaced of Houston's conviction, US officials were livid.

"The agents are upset, feel like they were taken advantage of, feel like they were duped," said Joshua Wilson , vice president and spokesman for the National Border Patrol Council Local 1613. "Turns out we provided armed security for a cartel wedding."

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Associated Press/Denis Poroy

For roughly 100 years, the open canyon was a glut of illegal activity . Scores of immigrants would cross into the US every night, darting around Border Patrol agents who were usually outnumbered, and whose radio equipment didn't work in the ravine.

The canyon served as the perfect running route for smugglers in the 1880s after the US opened the San Ysidro port of entry just a few miles east.To avoid paying duties or risk interference from customs officials, people smuggled everything from cattle, horses, and sheep, to opium, booze, cigars, and lace undergarments.

Even a century later, the gulch was still ridden with crime. Migrants illegally crossing the border there were forced to either pay tolls for safe passage, or endure being robbed, assaulted, or even raped.

But finally, in the early 21st century, the US government had had enough.

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Flickr/Romel Jacinto

The canyon, which had spanned roughly 800 feet at its base, is now filled with a pile of dirt about 180 feet high, and several layers of fencing that span the top.

Smuggler's Gulch was filled in 2009, the result of a 2005 Bush administration effort that eventually waived countless state laws and environmental regulations. Local environmentalists were outraged by the filling, citing the threatened species, such as jaguar and Sonoran pronghorn, that used to tread through the area.

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But the Bush administration , spurred on by the 9/11 attacks, argued that the gulch posed a national-security risk, and could potentially allow terrorists to pass through.

Reuters/Jorge Duenes

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Associated Press/Evan Vucci

Four of the prototypes are concrete and four were built with "other materials." Several have tubing or metal plates at the top to deter climbers, and some have the "see through" component Trump requested in the event that Border Patrol officers are hit with massive "sacks of drugs" catapulted over the wall.

Though Trump originally said he intended to choose the "best" prototype out of the eight options, CBP officials have said it's more likely that features from different prototypes will be mixed and matched with each other, and depend on the terrain and logistics of specific areas. The thousands of miles of border is remarkably varied, after all.

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Despite the mockery of Trump's "sacks of drugs" comment, the "see-through" component was "the most important factor" in protecting CBP agents' safety, Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told a Congressional committee recently.

"If we're going to have a fence or wall right on the border," McAleenan said, "our agents need to see through it for security."

Getty Images/David McNew

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Though parts of the Otay Mountain Wilderness remain clear, much of it is currently intersected by a 3.6-mile steel fence that was constructed in 2008 and cost $57.7 million one of the most expensive sectors of barrier along the entire US-Mexico border.

Despite Border Patrol officials claiming as late as 2006 that no such fencing would be needed in the Otay Mountain Wilderness, the Bush administration abruptly reversed course, waiving dozens of environmental laws to construct the fence.

Local humanitarian groups appeared baffled by the government's reasoning.

"It seems to me, if someone is able to climb the mountains in the Otay Wilderness, a 15-foot wall will not make a difference," Pedro Rios of San Diego's American Friends Service Committee said in 2010.

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Getty Images/John McNew

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Associated Press/Gregory Bull

Though Calexico on the US side and Mexicali on the Mexico side are separated by a tall, metal border fence, they share much of their population, culture, history, and economy.

Calexico is mostly populated by Hispanic people, and often sees Mexican residents commute to the US side for work each day.Meanwhile, Mexicali sees a significant influx of American tourists and patients seeking cheaper healthcare services.

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Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and OpenStreetMap contributors; Skye Gould/Andy Kiersz/Business Insider

Google Earth; Skye Gould/Business Insider

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Like the closely knit relationship between Calexico and Mexicali, San Luis shares much of its population and economy with the neighboring San Luis Rio Colorado.

Associated Press/Guillermo Arias

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Getty Images/John Moore

Humane Borders, a local nonprofit that has been working alongside the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner, has been mapping the locations of migrant deaths, many of which occur due to exposure or dehydration in the dry, unbearably hot desert.

"Over the last few years, we have seen a trend of more crossing in the extreme parts of the west desert," Dinah Bear, the board chair of the nonprofit Humane Borders, told Business Insider.

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Highs in the summer average 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with records reaching up to 117 degrees Fahrenheit.

Humane Borders

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Getty Images/John Moore

Though the group still some migrants using its water stations, Bear said she's observed a major decline in the number of people crossing the border.

Whereas it was common in the 1990s to see large groups of 20, 30, or even 40 migrants at a time, Bear said, Humane Borders volunteers typically only see one or two people at a time these days.

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"Most of the migrants now don't come from Mexico. They come from Central America, which is much further," Bear said. "So by the time they get to the border, they're already in pretty bad shape; they've just been traveling from much further away."

Bear said it's now far more common for the nonprofit to find human remains than to find living migrants.

"When we do see a migrant, on the very few occasions we do see migrants these days, inevitably they ask us to call the Border Patrol, because they are in really bad shape and they need help," she said.

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Getty Images/John Moore

Getty Images/John Moore

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Scientists and wildlife officials have been watching trends slowly unfold in recent years as more and more border fencing has gone up.

Conservationists have observed only three jaguars that have wandered into Arizona from Mexico since 2012, though they were commonplace in the state's deserts decades ago.

Other large mammals such as mountain lions, bighorn sheep, and bears also inhabit the Sky Islands and would likely face displacement or habitat disruption if the government extends border fencing or construct new wall around the area.

One University of Arizona wildlife biologist, Aaron Flesch, said an unbroken border wall would likely entirely destroy the ongoing conservation efforts for endangered cats.

"It would basically give us no avenue for recovery," he told Scientific American .

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Associated Press/Astrid Galvan

Arizona rancher John Ladd is one such landowner who frequently speaks to the media about the difficulties in securing his 16,000-acre ranch, which has been in his family for 122 years.

Ladd has said he supports Trump's idea for a wall in certain places but he also knows it won't be sufficient on its own in protecting his property.

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He said he has frequently endured drug smugglers breaching the existing 18-foot steel fence on his land by using power tools, or even ramming their vehicles through.He has also been frustrated by migrants and Border Patrol agents alike, who he says saunter through his land at will.

"By God, it's time we get serious. And if it takes the military, then do it," he told The Tucson Sentinel upon learning of Trump's plan to deploy the National Guard to the border.

Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and OpenStreetMap contributors; Skye Gould/Andy Kiersz/Business Insider

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Customs and Border Protection

Despite his persistence, Trump has run into numerous obstacles in constructing his wall the most significant being Congress' reluctance to fund it.

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Lawmakers in March shot down Trump's request to provide $25 billion for the wall, much to his annoyance . Instead, Congress supplied only $1.6 billion for border security and fencing similar to what already exists along the border.

By December, Trump asked for an additional $5 billion to build more wall.

Customs and Border Protection/Mani Albrecht

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Officials said in April 2018 that the wall would be 18 feet, including a 5-foot anti-climbing plate at the top. The concrete, filled with rebar, delves 6 feet into the ground with an additional 2 feet of concrete positioned below.

Despite skepticism from reporters during the groundbreaking event last month, Border Patrol officials insisted that the bollard-style fencing was, indeed, "the president's border wall."

Source: KOAT

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Associated Press/Ric Feld

So far, around 80 troops have already been deployed in the state, and their tasks will mostly consist of helpingfederal law-enforcement officials with aerial and surveillance support, as well as road and vehicle maintenance.

Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and OpenStreetMap contributors; Skye Gould/Andy Kiersz/Business Insider

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Reuters/Tomas Bravo

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Google Earth; Skye Gould/Business Insider

A host of laws and regulations from international treaties to flood-zone requirements make wall-construction along the Texas-Mexico border a daunting task.

All those obstacles mean that when fencing does get constructed, it usually ends up being placed far inland, cutting across private property. And Texas landowners haven't taken too kindly in the past to government officials attempting to co-opt their land.

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"We do have to go, unfortunately, to court proceedings in some cases," CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told a Congressional committee in April.

The complexities of the cases go far beyond pricing disputes with the landowners, and often devolve into tedious court battles over who even owns the land, and how to tell, McAleenan said.

"Some of the deeds go back to Spanish land grants and are very complex to really figure out who owns the land," he said. "So that's a multi-stage process; we try to do it in a collaborative and open, consultative manner."

He added that CBP intends to work on major real-estate planning this year to pave the way for future border-wall construction.

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Google Earth

Martinez , 36, died November 18 shortly after first responders found him and his partner badly injured near a drainage culvert along Interstate 10 in Van Horn, Texas. Authorities said both men suffered traumatic head injuries, and that Martinez's partner has no memory of the incident.

Top Republicans including President Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, and the state's Gov. Greg Abbot immediately seized on Martinez's death as evidence that the US-Mexico border is insufficiently secured. They called his death an "attack" or an "ambush."

"Border Patrol Officer killed at Southern Border, another badly hurt," Trump tweeted November 19 . "We will seek out and bring to justice those responsible. We will, and must, build the Wall!"

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Yet, the FBI and local authorities have said they found no evidence to suggest the men were attacked. Instead,Culberson County Sheriff Oscar Carrillo has said it appears far more likely that Martinez and his partner fell into the culvert accidentally, perhaps after being side-swiped by a tractor-trailer.

Getty Images/John Moore

The massive, 1,125-square-mile park currently contains no manmade barriers , and is home to several highly precarious ecosystems that have undergone intense conservation efforts in recent years.

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But as one of the largest chunks of land in Texas owned by the federal government rather than private landowners, it's considered a prime spot for Trump's wall to go.

Associated Press/Michael Graczyk

A wall, or any type of manmade barrier, could wreck decades of work to preserve the natural landscape and protect the hundreds of species that live within the park, conservationists say.

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Associated Press/Christopher Sherman

The village is home to just 140 people , who largely subsist on a tourist economy, selling handcrafted artwork and trinkets to Americans who venture across the river.

Tourists are typically charged $5 for a ride across the US-Mexico border in a rowboat, and then they take a pickup truck or a donkey for the one-mile journey into town. Visitors check in with Mexican customs at a small white trailer before entering Boquillas Del Carmen.

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The residents of Boquillas have long feared that Trump's wall could cut off the flow of tourists, who essentially provide their only income.

Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and OpenStreetMap contributors; Skye Gould/Andy Kiersz/Business Insider

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Associated Press/Eric Gay

One such group is the Texas Border Volunteers, who began in 2006 as an offshoot of the then-popular Minutemen patrol groups.

TBV spokesman Jim Gibson told Business Insider that the group has observed a massive downturn in border-crossing traffic in recent years. They attribute the change less to Trump's tough-talk on border security, and more to the enhanced technology that Border Patrol agents and state authorities now use.

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For TBV, which patrols private lands some 70 miles inland near Falfurrias, the heightened technology means that Border Patrol is "responding quicker" to migrant traffic, which "never gets a chance to make it [to] where we're at."

Gibson said the technology, combined with increased manpower of the Border Patrol and National Guard troops, will ultimately make more of a difference in securing the border than any physical wall could.

"This is my view: The physical barrier is only one aspect of what's going to be required to fix the problem," Gibson said. "Until our legislatures start to deal with issues like employment, social services, birthright citizenship, and all the other magnets that attract people here in the first place, they'll find a way to get here."

He continued: "Let's be realistic. Some people envision this wall as a solid barrier that runs from one end of the border to the other. That's never going to happen."

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Associated Press/Eric Gay

Gibson said TBV volunteers have to abide by several rules before they can join. The first is that they have to have a concealed handgun license, another is that they can only carry handguns absolutely no long guns, which could unnecessarily intimidate both migrants and landowners, and could result in a serious injury.

But the most important rule for volunteers is that they can never apprehend people themselves. Instead, they radio the location of suspected migrants to Border Patrol agents, and only approach the migrants if they appear to be in desperate need of help.

Gibson said some volunteers were once caught tying up migrants while they waited for Border Patrol to arrive and those volunteers were dismissed from the group immediately.

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"Incidents like that is what can cause not only us to get kicked off the properties, but for law-enforcement to say, 'Screw you, we're not working with you," Gibson said.

The group takes their work seriously. And while Gibson said he personally holds no animosity towards migrants seeking a better life in the US, he and others in the group believe crossing the border unlawfully is a simple matter of right and wrong.

"The border's a problem, and this is an opportunity for us to be proactive and do something that might help," Gibson said. "Now, we're not a silver bullet we're not solving everything but it's a chance for us to do something productive, helping out law enforcement, helping the land owners, and we take a lot of satisfaction in that."

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Google Earth

The Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park has already been flagged as a location the Trump administration intends to wall off.

According to documents obtained by the Texas Observer , the US Army Corps of Engineers has already plotted out a map showing 15 different segments where the Trump administration plans to erect roughly 33 miles of wall.

In the Bentsen-Rio park's case, the planned wall would bisect the 797-acre nature preserve.

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Associated Press/Eric Gay

The US Army Corps of Engineers initially flagged the three-mile wildlife refuge as one of the easiest spots to erect a border wall, since the land is already owned by the federal government.

But Congress listened to conservationists concerns about destroying a large chunk of natural land for the sake of a border wall.

The exemption shows the highly fraughtpolitical process behind regulating the walls construction.

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While environmentalists pursue whatever victories they can, they have complained of the arbitrariness of lawmakers' decisions on what land is deemed worthy of conservation, and what isn't.

Getty Images/John Moore

Though overall border-crossing arrests have been plummeting for years under both the Obama and Trump administrations, the Rio Grande Valley is where much of the illegal activity take places along the border.

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CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told Congress recently that the valley has become by far the agency's highest priority.

"That's where we've seen 50% of traffic crossing our border. Both an increase in family units and children, but also hard narcotics an increase in hardened criminals and smugglers," McAleenan said.

Google Earth; Skye Gould/Business Insider

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Source: Google Earth

Google Earth; Skye Gould/Business Insider

The golf course was popular among Mexican-Americans for decades, but in 2006 found itself in a tight spot after Congress passed the Secure Fences Act.

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When the Homeland Security Department eventually began constructing the border fencing several years later, they chose a spot on the levee, leaving the course trapped outside the fence, on the Mexican side.

The move had a direct impact on the business, and after roughly 50 years of operation, the golf course shut its doors for the last time in 2015.

Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and OpenStreetMap contributors; Skye Gould/Andy Kiersz/Business Insider

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See Also:

SEE ALSO: The 8-year-old migrant boy who died on Christmas Eve was held in US custody for nearly a week against Border Patrol's own rules

DON'T MISS: The Trump administration just released new photos of 'the president's border wall' and it looks more like a fence

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