Building a physical border wall actually makes border guards more likely to commit torture.
April 16, 2026
Original Paper
From Barriers to Abuse: Border Hardening and Torture
SSRN · 6576681
The Takeaway
We usually think of border walls as simple physical barriers, but they have a profound psychological impact on the people who staff them. This research shows that 'border hardening' is directly linked to an increase in allegations of torture. When a government builds a wall, it signals to its officers that they are in a state of 'total defense,' which guards internalize as a license to use any means necessary. The physical wall becomes a psychological shield that dehumanizes the people on the other side. This suggests that border security isn't just about stopping movement; it actively degrades the human rights standards of the country building the barrier.
From the abstract
Serious human rights violations have commonly been reported in border regions and against migrants. We develop a theory of torture by persons whose job it is to secure the border from irregular entry. We contend that when states commence highly visible and costly border hardening programs, border and immigration officials (BIOs) tend to internalize stringent border security priorities and interpret border barriers as license to enforce the border at all costs. We find that when states start new