How Much Division is a Wall Worth?

“Borders: a line separating two political or geographical areas, especially countries.”

Illustrated by Bryce Pol

It has been nearly 10 years since the first call for division was made by then-candidate Donald Trump. During the 2016 U.S. election campaign, the border became a defining issue after Trump announced his run for president, promising to build a “great, great wall.” Perhaps this was not realized immediately, but looking back, it was the moment that sparked a great division in our nation and neighboring countries that continues to grow today.

For many Rural Arizona Engagement (RAZE) staff members, this is not a political debate, but a personal one. 

Araceli Aquino, Communications Manager for RAZE, shared how her family is separated by these structures. 

“It’s difficult and a very unique and painful experience,” said Aquino. “My mom, who has never committed any crime and has always been hardworking and caring, never felt welcomed in the U.S. At one point, she was afraid to even leave our home out of fear of being arrested simply because of her skin color, her language and her lack of papers.”

“She left the U.S. out of fear in 2009, and since then, she has missed some of the most important moments of my life,” said Aquino. “She missed my middle school and high school graduations, my prom, the birth of my child and my courthouse wedding. “These are moments the wall has taken away from me.”

The story of her mother reveals an unspoken truth, a revelation many immigrants already know – the people affected by border policies are not criminals. They are parents, workers, and community members trying to navigate a system that offers no solutions, no empathy and is often inaccessible.

Aquino’s family is one of the many separated by the border, and for some communities, the wall doesn’t just divide families, it divides sacred land that has existed long before any border was drawn. 

In southern Arizona, the Tohono O’odham Nation has consistently opposed the construction of Trump’s border wall across their ancestral lands.

As Chairman Verlon Jose explained in a 2017 interview with the New York Times, “If someone came into your house and built a wall in your living room, tell me, how would you feel about that?”

The Nation has long emphasized that walls are not the most effective solution for border security. Instead, they point to collaboration. Since 2002, the Tohono O’odham Police Department has worked alongside U.S. Border Patrol to address border concerns, aiding in significant drug seizures and enforcement efforts.

Following the September 11 attacks, these partnerships developed, focusing on strategies such as vehicle barriers that allow wildlife to migrate freely while still addressing security concerns.

The Tohono O’odham’s respect for balance between security, nature and wildlife sheds light on a larger truth about what “the wall” threatens beyond the human experience. 

“We do not own the land, but we care for the land,” said Jose in a 2017 video opposing the construction of the border wall. “Every stick and stone is sacred. Every creature is sacred.” 

The U.S.-Mexico borderlands are among the most diverse regions in North America, spanning deserts, mountains, and subtropical ecosystems. These landscapes are home to thousands of plant and animal species, as well as communities with cultural and historical ties to the land, yet they are increasingly under threat.

Illustrated by Bryce Pol

Endangered species, including the jaguar, Sonoran pronghorn, Mexican gray wolves, and Peninsular bighorn sheep, depend on cross-border habitats for

survival. Physical barriers disrupt their migration patterns and isolate populations. 

Research conducted between 2022 and 2024 by conservation groups, Sky Island Alliance and Wildlands Network, found that only 9% of wildlife interactions with border walls resulted in successful crossings. That is an 86% decrease compared to areas that use vehicle barriers rather than walls. For larger animals like black bears, mountain lions, and deer, crossings were reduced to zero.

The damage to families, community perception, wildlife and land is widely known, but the border wall debate has also undeniably divided American voters.

According to the Pew Research Center, in 2019, 82% of Republicans supported expanding the U.S.-Mexico border wall, compared with 6% of Democrats.

As of 2024, 72% of Republicans believe expanding the wall would improve the situation at the border, while 47% of Democrats say the wall would “not make much of a difference”, and 24% say it would worsen the situation. 

While voters remain divided along party lines, the government has already made a choice, one that costs $46.5 billion.

In 2025, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem shared that the administration had secured about $46.5 billion in funding to expand and modernize the border barrier system, including hundreds of miles of new wall. 

The rhetoric that built this wall has also reshaped border towns, once known as vibrant hubs of cross-border culture and economic development, which are increasingly being impacted by the messages coming from the administration. It is slowly chipping at their economies. 

The U.S.-Mexico border wall continues to be framed as a “solution” to our nation’s problems, but for the children crossing alone daily, for Araceli and her mother, the indigenous communities and for the wildlife, it has deepened the divide it claimed to fix. 

That divide is measured not by miles of a wall, but in the families separated, the land disrupted and the cultures it silences.