Physical barriers along borders are the most “cost-effective tool” to deter and slow illegal cross-border activity, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo recently made public.
The memo, obtained by the nonprofit legal organization the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) through a Freedom of Information Act request, is dated 2017.
It is the result of an audit regarding U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) security of the southern border for then-acting CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan and details the “Analyze/Select” phase of the acquisition of the barrier along the U.S.–Mexico border.
IRLI said it had initially submitted a request to CBP for the internal document and information relating to the DHS’s internal review of its wall-building capacity in July 2020 but only received a single document, the memo, in March 2023, nearly three years after the request was submitted….
