More info...
*The Secure Fence Act of 2006 was passed under the GWB administration.
*The act called for around 700 miles of wall.
*Obama, Schumer, and Hillary Clinton voted for the act.
*A 2016
Associated Press report from the border described "rust-colored thick bars" that form "teeth-like slats" 18 feet high. "There are miles of gaps between segments and openings in the fence itself," the report said.
*The act also authorized the use of more vehicle barriers as well as satellite surveillance and unmanned aerial vehicles.
The legislation was written in a way to garner bipartisan support for the wall. The use of walls in high population areas (thus the 700 miles and not across the entire border) with the increase in satellite surveillance and drones was why this legislation was passed in a bipartisan way. The comparison between what was passed in 2006 and what Trump is demanding are two entirely different universes. The comparison and belief that this is some kind of gotcha moment is absurd. Apples and oranges.
I’ve been to El Paso. I crossed the RG into Mexico and spent some time in Juarez. The need for border security fencing in areas like this where the Mexican population is shoved up against the border is certainly warranted. But to equate that belief to a need to place an ineffective barrier across 2000 miles of US/Mexican border to appease a president who has painted himself in the corner with ridiculous campaign promises, who needs a victory to sustain political viability is beyond ridiculous.
But the question is, why do we want to waste money on an idea that that is totally ineffective. The majority of the drugs...let me rephrase...the overwhelming majority of the drugs entering this country comes in through legal points of entry. They come into ports by boats, through airports, and predominantly through land check points smuggled in hidden compartments in trucks and vehicles. They are brought in through tunnels. Over 225 tunnels were detected between 1991 and 2016 and that’s just the ones caught. They are brought in by catapults over existing walls. They are brought in through our northern border with Canada. They come in the mail from China (
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation...-flaw-to-ship-illegal-drugs-investigators-say). Quite simply a wall to curb the drug flow is a ridiculous notion.
And illegal immigration...how effective would a wall be for curbing it? Here are some statistics from the Center for Migration Studies...
- In 2014, about 4.5 million US residents, or 42 percent of the total undocumented population, were overstays.
- Overstays accounted for about two-thirds (66 percent) of those who arrived (i.e., joined the undocumented population) in 2014.
So overstays, those who come here on visas and vacations, represent 66% of those who joined the undocumented population. A wall doesn’t fix that. And there are other ways illegals get in. They are smuggled in hidden compartments in vehicles. For example, Falfurrias Station checkpoint in Texas is the busiest port of legal entry on the southern border. On a busy day more than 30,000 vehicles pass through this checkpoint. More undocumented immigrants are caught here than any other port of entry. What they catch represents only a fraction of what gets through.
I’ve mentined tunnels used for smuggling drugs, but they also bring across illegals as well. Again, more than 225 have been detected since 1991. Some with ventilation systems, lighting, and even an elevator.
So...the bottom line here is an attempt by Mulvaney (Trump’s a “terrible human being”) is to politicize the division by making a comparison that is absolutely ridiculous. The need for security on the southern border has never been disputed by either side. What is disputed is whether a complete border wall would solve anything. Facts bear out that they will not. This division was created by our president and his blustery campaign rhetoric and heightened by the fact that he has painted himself in a political corner. This no longer about the efficacy of a wall, because facts bear out how useless it is. But sadly we are dealing with a president whose reason for the wall being transparent was so smugglers wouldn’t hit border agents with 60 pound bags of drugs as they were tossed over the wall. I sh** you not.
