Abby Tomasek and Alex Houston

Border Crossings on Transboundary

Waters

United States and Mexico Border

*Total border is 1,954 miles long

*Rio Grande makes up about 1,240 miles of the border

• Second-longest river in US

• Longest river in Texas

• About three-fourths of flow below El Paso comes from Mexican side

The Rio Grande River

*Listed on the Most Threatened Rivers list by the American Rivers Group four times

*Challenges

•Water Stress

- Dependency

- Increasing Demand

• Socio-economic factors

- High level of poverty

- Lacking education, health care, and jobs

• Public Safety Concerns

- Illegal border crossings

- Drug trafficking

Economy of the Region

*Citrus Fruits

*Sugarcane

*Corn

*Sorghum

*Cotton

*Vegetables

*Cattle

*Livestock

Smuggling Drugs*Pilots who fly along the Rio Grande say amount of smuggling

has not declined and predict increased violence on US soil

*47% of the drugs seized in the US within 150 miles of the US-Mexico Border between 2004-2006 were in Texas

*Falfurrias, Texas is the heaviest area of alien and narcotic traffic

• First two weeks of October in 2011, 5.5 tons of marijuana that was worth an estimated $10 million was seized

• Confiscated in 2011

- 300,000 pounds of marijuana

- 2,000 pounds of cocaine

Immigration

*1.2 million illegal immigrants were apprehended by the Border Patrol in 2005

*Estimated that Border Patrol catches 1 out of every 4 illegal border crossers

*Per-capita income differential

• US– over $30,000

• Mexico– less than $4,000

Immigration

*Del Rio Sector– 205 miles of the Rio Grande

• 26.2% of the Texas and New Mexico illegal alien traffic

• 92.8% of the apprehended illegal border crossers possessed Mexican citizenship

*Temporary relief to pressure on the border

• 6,000 National Guard troops

• 2 new surveillance aircrafts

• Five helicopters

The Wall*Proposed wall includes a double set of steel walls

*10-foot prison chain link fence topped by razor wire would cost $851 million

*Engineers have determined to set the wall back by as much as two miles north of the river

• Homes, agricultural fields and churches would be affected

• Some Americans’ homes would be behind the wall

*Short and long-term impacts include changes in

• Riparian vegetation

• Channel morphology

• Floodplain function

West Texas Border Wall*Separates residents from their only source of water

*36 laws were waived to build the border wall in 2008

• Clean Water Act

• Safe Drinking Water Act

*Tigua Nation

• Holds ceremonies in the Rio Grande near El Paso for 300 years

• Stripped the tribe of its protections by waiving the American Indian Religious Freedom Act

US-Canada Border

*The US-Canada border is 5,525 miles long, one of the longest boundaries in the world

• 3,145 miles of land border

• 2,380 miles of water border

*Unique in that some US land surrounded by Canadian border

*Water borders unclearly defined making accidental border crossing easy

US-Canada Border Security

*Report released concluded that only 32 miles of the border was under operational control

*Recent crackdown of fishing across border without notifying customs

*Reports of immigrants entering US from Canada

*Conversely, there are also reports of immigrants entering Canada via the US

*Border security an issue for both countries

North Korea-China Border

*The Yalu and Tumen River form the entire length of the North Korea-China border

*The Yalu River is 491 miles long and is swift, deep, and broad

*The Tumen River is 324 miles long

• Shallow and narrow

• Preferred route for crossing into China

*North Korean guards patrol the length of the rivers

Issues facing North Korean Defectors

*Migrants are vulnerable to abuse

*Most people crossing the border are women

• Many end up sold by trafficking gangs

• End up in forced marriages

*Migrants caught repeatedly crossing the border, stay a prolonged period, or have contact with South Koreans liable to severe punishment or death

Asylum for North Koreans

*North Koreans attempt to reach South Korea or third world countries in area via the “underground railroad”

• Two main routes

- Over the Mongolian border

- Through Burma or Laos, over the Mekong, and ending in Thailand

*China does not consider North Koreans refugees, instead classifying them as illegal economic migrants

*Estimated number of North Koreans currently living in China ranges from 10,000 to 300,000

*China states that its main obligation in dealing with North Koran migrants originates from a 1986 agreement

*If a North Korean makes it to South Korea, they are considered a citizen

Questions

*How do you think the US and Mexico can work together to control immigration while still preserving the environmentally and socially important areas surrounding the Rio Grande River?

*We have talked a lot in class about cooperation between countries regarding water resource issues, and immigration conflicts can threaten working relationships. Should these issues be considered by global partners when discussing water resources, or should immigration issues be a national issue?

*How should water boundaries be treated differently than land boundaries?