Border Security Politics

Democrat U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico claims that “both parties have failed us on our borders.”

IN FACT, Republicans have consistently worked to seal the border, while Democrats have impeded these efforts. Here are the specifics:

The border between the U.S. and Mexico is roughly 2,000 miles, and as explained by the Congressional Research Service, it has been “the locus of almost all illegal migration” to the United States, as well as a conduit for the “smuggling of illicit drugs, counterfeit products, dangerous agricultural products, and trafficked children.”
The first border barrier between the U.S. and Mexico was built in the early 1990s by Republican President George H. Bush. It consisted of 7 miles of fencing between San Diego and Tijuana, a hot spot for drug trafficking and illegal immigration.
In the first year of his presidency, Democrat Bill Clinton permitted the completion of prior plans to extend the San Diego barrier by another 7 miles, for a total of 14 miles. Because this was less than 1% of the U.S./Mexico border, drug traffickers and illegal migrants simply went around it.
In 1996, the Republican-controlled Congress passed a wide-ranging immigration bill that directed the Attorney General to “install additional physical barriers and roads” to “deter illegal crossings in areas of high illegal entry into the United States.” The bill passed with 98% of Republicans voting for it and 51% of Democrats voting against it or not voting. After the bill was integrated with a large omnibus spending act, Clinton signed it into law.
Nevertheless, Clinton spent a total of only $25 million on border barriers in the remaining 4 years of his presidency.
In 2006, the Republican-controlled Congress passed a bill that directed the Department of Homeland Security to build 850 miles of double-layered barriers along the Southwest border. The bill was approved with 96% of Republicans voting for it and 60% of Democrats voting against it. Republican President George W. Bush then signed it into law.
In the remaining 2 years of Bush’s presidency, he spent a total of $2.1 billion on border barriers, quadrupling the miles of vehicle barriers and sextupling the miles of pedestrian fencing. This left the U.S. with roughly 300 miles of vehicle barriers and 300 miles of pedestrian fencing.
Spending on barrier construction rapidly declined during Obama’s presidency, and virtually no more border barriers were built after his first year. During his last 5 years in office, Obama spent a total of $4 million on border barriers and left some of them in a serious state of disrepair.
In 2016, Donald Trump was elected president after campaigning to build a “big beautiful wall” across roughly half of the U.S. border while noting that “we have natural barriers” that make the other half impassable.
Prominent Democrats like Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Dick Durbin, and Dianne Feinstein called Trump’s plan for a wall “medieval,” “ineffective,” and “expensive.”
However, at least 19 other countries had fortified or expanded border barriers since 2010, data from diverse nations and locations showed precipitous declines in illegal migration once these barriers were completed, and an extensive 2017 DHS audit found that physical barriers were the most effective and least expensive way to secure the border in every one of the 25 areas that were audited.
Despite lawsuits to prevent Trump from using military funds for border barriers and Democrat opposition that limited border barrier funding to 38% of Trump’s requests, he constructed 458 miles of border barriers and had another 173 miles under contract when he left office.
On his first day as president, Democrat Joe Biden signed an executive order halting all border wall construction while calling it a “waste of money” and promising a “comprehensive and humane immigration system.”
Along with that order, Biden and his top officials enacted a host of open border policies that fueled the worst border crisis in U.S. history while they repeatedly declared that the “border is secure” — even though objective measures of border insecurity like gotaways, encounters, and border crossing deaths climbed by 3–6 times.
When they could no longer deny the border crisis, Biden, his Attorney General, Politico, and others blamed the chaos on climate change and other factors that were allegedly beyond the control of the Biden administration. However, the flood of illegal borders crossings immediately ended when Trump became president again and strictly enforced immigration laws.
After Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives in 2023, they passed an act that would have required the construction of at least 900 miles of border barriers and closed loopholes that permit and entice illegal immigration. The bill passed the House with 99% of Republicans voting for it and 99% of Democrats voting against it. Democrats, who controlled the Senate, then shelved it.
In the final year of Biden’s term with the 2024 national elections pending and 77% of Americans of the opinion that “the situation at the U.S. border with Mexico” is a “crisis” or “major problem,” 85% of Senate Democrats and one Republican voted for a bill that Democrats repeatedly called the “toughest border” security bill in “decades” or “history.”
The bill, which failed to pass the Senate, would have made funds “available” for a border barrier but didn’t require it to be built, leaving this decision to the Secretary of Homeland Security, who is under the authority of the President.
Moreover, the “tough” Democrat border bill would have codified Biden’s open border policies by ensuring that the “border never closes,” asylum claims are “processed in a non-detained, non-adversarial way,” and other directives that enable and reward illegal immigration.
In 2025, the Republican-controlled Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which provides $46 billion to “complete construction of the border wall.” This bill was passed with 98% of Republicans voting for it and 100% of Democrats voting against it. President Trump then signed it into law.
Per the Congressional Research Service, the “overall effectiveness of border” barriers is questionable if they are “not constructed across the entire border” because illegal immigrants tend to re-route to “other less fortified areas of the border.”
Beyond full coverage, other important aspects of border barrier efficacy include the quality of the barriers and their locations, as well as a “supporting infrastructure of sensors, roads, lighting, and surveillance technology” that needs to be “monitored and maintained to be effective.”

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