President Donald Trump pledges to build a wall on the border between the U.S. and Mexico, claiming that it will stop criminals and drugs from entering the United States. Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow in the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at Brookings and author of the new Brookings Essay, “The Wall: The real costs of a barrier between the United States and Mexico,” addresses these and other claims made about the border wall. This is part one of a two-part conversation about her essay and the wall. Also: in another installment of Metro Lens, the Metropolitan Policy Program's Joseph Parilla discusses why services exports (as opposed to goods exports) need to be a more central part of the Trump administration’s focus on its made in America agenda. Thanks to audio producer Gaston Reboredo with assistance from Mark Hoelscher, and to producer Vanessa Sauter.  Additional support comes from Jessica Pavone, Eric Abalahin, Rebecca Viser, and David Nassar. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts  or on , send feedback email to , and follow us and tweet us at  on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is a part of the .