This post updates an October post with full-year and state data.

President Trump promised an “impenetrable” border wall. Trump built (with some help from Biden) about 450 miles of his wall, accounting for two-thirds of the border fence, and the remaining sections are the more recent designs that the Trump administration left because it largely approved of them.

Despite the construction of these exceedingly expensive new barriers, crossers are breaching the border wall more frequently than before, according to data obtained by the Cato Institute through a recent Freedom of Information Act request. In fiscal year 2022, the border wall was breached 4,101 times—more than 11 times per day. This was far more than the number of breaches in any of the prior six years and double the number of breaches for fiscal year 2016 before any of the Trump wall was built. In June, it was nearly 16 times per day, 113 times per week. Figure 1 shows the number of breaches by fiscal year. 

Every region of the border has seen a dramatic increase in border wall breaches. Figure 2 shows the number of border wall breaches by state. From FY 2016 to 2022, the number of breaches in California doubled from 713 to 1,403. Arizona saw a nearly sevenfold increase from just 94 to 674, and breaches also doubled from 997 to 2,025 in Texas and New Mexico (which are not listed separately).

These billion dollar walls are easily cut through with conventional power saws that cost as little as $100. Of course, these are just the breaches that have been discovered. Earlier this year, the Washington Post reported:

After smuggling crews cut through, they often disguise the breaches with tinted putty, making it difficult for agents to recognize which bollards have been compromised. The smugglers can return again and again to the site until the damage is detected, using the breach like a secret entrance. “They cut it with a fair amount of precision,” said one person with detailed knowledge of the sawing tactics who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. “You have to look really closely to see it.”

As I have explained previously, the Trump border wall failed for all the predictable reasons. Immigrants used cheap ladders to climb over it, or they free climb it. They cut through small pieces and squeezed through, and they cut through big sections and drove through. In one small section in 2020, they sawed through at least 18 times that Border Patrol knew about in a month. They also made tunnels. Some tunnels were long, including the longest one ever discovered, but some were short enough just to get past the barrier.

Figure 3 shows the total miles of Trump border fencing compared to the number of known successful illegal entries. The number of successful entries—that Border Patrol saw—more than doubled after the Trump border wall was constructed. The fence has failed to accomplish its stated purpose of stopping illegal entries. Citing some easily surveilled minor gaps here and there in the Trump design as the reason for this failure is just sticking your head in the sand to avoid seeing all the smugglers sawing through it.

The border wall has been a $15 billion boondoggle. If a $15 billion project can be so easily defeated with $100 power tools and $5 dollar ladders, maybe the Border Patrol union was right the first time when it initially said more fencing wouldn’t work. No fair-minded advocate can say now that the project has provided any benefit whatsoever.