We already have a border wall covering parts of our southern border. The US border with Mexico is 1,954 miles in which 580 miles are covered either by a border wall or fencing. From the east, the fencing starts in Brownsville, Texas (on the Gulf of Mexico) and ends in San Diego, California where it juts out into the Pacific Ocean surf. It has some obvious gaps along the way which are monitored by cameras, sensors and other surveillance equipment. From Brownsville to Del Rio, Texas is border fencing (about 300 miles) and then it stops because the Rio Grande River is too marshy or there are mountains. The Rio Grande is no longer the border after El Paso, since it comes southeast down from the Rockies and it no longer runs west to east. There are about 400 miles without fencing in between Del Rio and El Paso. Is this the spot where Trump wants to put his wall? Why? Are Central American families trudging through the mud of the Rio Grande or climbing over the mountains of Big Bend National Park? This is nonsense.
Vehicle barriers are in highly populated areas. Vehicles once drove over the border importing drugs. The barrier was built in the 1990's and has barbed wire around it to prevent people from going through the cracks. This is what the vehicle barrier looks like:
The fencing looks awful lot like a wall to me so whether this is a a wall or just fencing seems to be a moot point:
The conclusion I get from looking at the maps and photos is that our government is shut down so that our president can pay for a $5 billion wall in marshy, mountainous or desert areas that are already impassable. A concrete wall from San Diego to Brownsville is not only a bad idea to help solve our immigration problem, it would be a disaster for the environment. Access to the river is the only water supply for miles. Putting up a barrier simply kill the wildlife.
For a video tour of the border check out this link from USA Today. Click on the arrows on the map from right to left (east to west) for the video tour via helicopter. This is very educational. The closest I've ever been to the Mexican border is a brief visit to the Padre Islands so I am totally clueless about this area of the country.
Illegal immigration is not a big problem. Undocumented workers usually become model citizens and commit less crimes (on average) than people who were born here. There may be a few that are "rapists and murderers" like our President says, but for the most part, they are good people, running away from horrendous conditions, looking for a place to live peacefully and away from the violence of their homeland. If you are concerned about violence, perhaps we should deport more citizens because, on average, we commit more crime, violent or otherwise.
Trump has not made a logical case for expanding the existing wall which would be very expensive, time consuming and seemingly impossible/impractical in some areas. It is obvious why he hasn't made the case because there is no logical case for it. It is mere fear mongering, jingoism and dog-whistle racism. His own party controlled both houses of Congress for the first two years of his administration. If they thought it was a good idea they would have approved the funding, but they kept telling him to wait, kicking the can to the Democrats. Now that the Democrats control the House, he wants to play chicken with every one's lives. Our food supply is susceptible to tampering because the FDA is diminished, we are less safe because the TSA is diminished, the guards at our Federal prisons are working double shifts without pay, our National Parks are being trashed and our Federal employees are in dire straits with no idea when their next pay check is coming. Trump, once again, is a national embarrassment.
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