Security & Strategic Review - January 2007

MEXICO-US | 'Wall' may cost much more than anticipated. The Congressional Research Service (CRS), a non-partisan agency serving the US Congress, has caused a stir with a report, distributed in December, according to which the series of fences and barriers to be built along the border with Mexico (el Muro or the Wall to Latin Americans), will cost much more than Congress has reckoned. At the time construction of the Wall was approved, its promoter, congressman Duncan Hunter, had put the figure at US$2.2bn, only slightly higher than the estimate produced in May 2005 by the Congressional Budget Office. The CRS calculates that the cost of building the Wall and maintaining it over 25 years will be between US$16.4m and US$70m per mile (depending on how much damage is caused by determined immigrants). This translates into a total cost of at least US$14bn - without counting the outlays for buying privately owned land.

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