Don't fence us in?

Stat house
October 2006

Don't fence us in?
1,951: number of miles of border between United States and Mexico.

75: number of miles of existing hard fencing along U.S.-Mexico border.

700: Number of miles of proposed new fencing.

$2.2 to $4.4 billion: estimated cost of total construction of additional 700 miles of fencing.

$1.2 billion: amount of money earmarked for preliminary work in 2007 of additional 700 miles of fencing.

$22 million: Fiscal 2007 U.S. Agency for International Development budget request for Mexico.

15 to 30: multiple proposed border fencing expenditure exceeds current AID contributions to Mexico's over the next 5 years.

3: number of days undocumented migrants currently average hiking through parched terrain to sanctuary in the U.S.

472: estimated number of deaths last year that occurred because migrants avoiding existing 75 miles of fencing crossed into remote and treacherous desert areas along U.S.-Mexico border.

3,000: estimated number of migrants who have died attempting to cross the border since tougher border measures were enacted in the 1990s.

1: number of outgoing Mexican presidents to call the proposed construction "shameful," a U.S. "Berlin Wall," while unsuccessfully imploring President Bush not to sign enacting legislation.

99: percentage of legal visitors to the U.S. who observe the conditions of their visas, according to the Pew Charitiable Trust.

12 million: estimated number of undocumented immigrants currently residing in the U.S.

3: number of the members of the Holy Family who found sanctuary from Herod's cruelty after crossing into Egypt.

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