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CLICK HERE for an interactive, image-based description of how our border is protected.

CLICK HERE for details on Trump administrations misleading comments on immigrant-crime and terrorism

What is the truth about border barriers? See how the current Trump administration is misrepresenting issues caused by immigrants.

The two articles (links above) explain many of the details and representations.

Summarized details on the border graphics (please click the link above to walk through graphics):

• The 2,000-mile United States border with Mexico is defined by rugged terrain and the Rio Grande, which act as natural barriers.
• Most U.S. border land east of El Paso, Tex., is privately owned. To the west, most of the land is owned by the federal government.
• The government has built nearly 700 miles of wall and fencing since 2006, mostly on federal land and where the terrain does not provide a natural barrier.
• President Trump wants to build a new wall that could cost $25 billion. Eight prototypes, ranging from 18 to 30 feet high, have been tested near the San Diego border.
• But the administration so far has focused on replacing existing barriers with taller structures along several sections of the border.
• Some of the pre-existing fencing already is tall — higher than 10 feet — and concentrated near populated areas.
• The sections that are 10feet and higher are intended to keep people from trying to cross the border on foot.
• Still, people find ways to cut through the fencing or climb over it.
• The rest of the fencing lies in areas where the terrain makes it difficult to safely cross the border on foot.
• Some sections are shorter and built to block vehicles from driving across.
• Blimps, like drones, cameras and other surveillance tools — reinforces the physical fencing. Such tools are often repurposed military gear that was used in Afghanistan or Iraq.
• More than 16,000 Border Patrol agents work across nine sectors. They are devided between the multiple states along the border.
• People usually pass through one of 25 official crossings that dot the border.
• Most of the hard drugs that are smuggled into the United States come through one of the 25 official crossings — or under them. Hundreds of smuggling tunnels snake under border towns like Nogales, in Arizona.
• In part because of increased border security, the number of people caught crossing the border illegally has dropped 82 percent from its peak in 2000.