Reality Check: Data Reality +Trump's Border Wall Policy

What's with that physical barrier called "the wall" on the man-made lines of the border between the United States of America and the United States of Mexico?
It's become a highly-militarized zone - The NeoCons are back. New Price tag: $16 Billion Dollar$$$$$$$$$

Charts of the week:

Immigration and Trump’s border wall

Chris McKenna Friday, January 5, 2018

Source: Brookings Now 

About 12 years ago your MesaZona blogger lived a transnational life, migrating back to Mesa. Ambos Nogales is an international city straddling both sides of what locals call "La Linea". That demarcation has become more than just a line on the map, seized by Donald Trump to score some political points with his base. How far off the mark are his policies?

Here's some data in advance of a Brookings Institution event scheduled for Thursday that you can register for:

In “The Wall: The real costs of a barrier between the U.S. and Mexico,” the Brookings Essay published in August of 2017, Foreign Policy Senior Fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown analyzed Trump’s claims about illegal immigration and the implications his policies could have on the U.S. economy, crime, and the environment. In advance of a Brookings event on Thursday, January 11, where Felbab-Brown will discuss her essay with Representative Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) and Maria Peña, correspondent for La Opinión-Impremedia, we wanted to highlight a few charts on immigration and border security from research by Felbab-Brown and other experts across the Institution . . .

CALIFORNIA, TEXAS, NEW YORK, AND FLORIDA HOST MORE UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS THAN ANY OTHER STATE

As Felbab-Brown illustrates through her profiles of undocumented immigrants across the U.S., immigration is a topic that affects more than just the Southwest corner of the country. The chart (inserted above), which uses 2014 data from the Pew Research Center, shows the distribution of more than 11.1 million undocumented residents living in the United States.

Blogger Take-Away >  Policy is cut off from reality: Donald Trump’s immigration problem

IMMIGRATION VIOLATIONS (NOT OTHER CRIMES) EXPLAIN THE MAJORITY OF DEPORTATIONS

As Elaine Kamarck, senior fellow in Governance Studies, noted in her research last fall, President Trump often invokes cases of violence committed by undocumented immigrants in order to legitimize immigration restrictions as a critical issue, although the data do not support his logic.

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TRUMP’S BORDER PLAN INCLUDES A MASSIVE INCREASE IN BORDER PATROL AGENTS

Along with building a larger border wall, President Trump has also advocated for a larger border patrol workforce. Kamarck points out that President Obama can be credited for a dramatic increase in the size of the border patrol workforce during his administration. President Trump’s plan would further raise the number of border personal by 15,000, but with a host of practical and logistical difficulties to achieve that goal.


For more Brookings commentary on issues related to immigration, click here, and be sure to register for our event next Thursday.