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The Big, Beautiful, Swiss Cheese Border Wall [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-01-12
The Big Beautiful Wall the former President claimed would stop illegal border crossings is full of holes. Statements that the border was in any way secured during the former President’s first term are misleading or false.
Despite all the bluster and big talk by right-wing media, a mere 50 miles of new wall were built on the 3,100-mile border between the US and Mexico during his administration. And a $150 battery-powered metal saw could cut a hole in the fence bollards in probably less than an hour. The wall’s bollards are six inches square and made of 3/16-inch-thick steel. They are no match for a determined smuggler.
As a 2022 Washington Post article notes,
“Once the 18-to-30-foot-tall bollards are severed near the ground, their only remaining point of attachment is at the top of the structure, leaving the steel beam dangling in the air. It easily swings open with a push, creating a gap wide enough for people and narcotics to pass through. Cut openings were disguised by smugglers to use the same opening over and over again. Ladders of scrap rebar and wood were also constructed to climb over the wall with knotted ropes used to climb down the other side.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection records obtained by the Washington Post show that suspected smuggling gangs managed to hack through the heavy steel bollards making up the fence 3,272 times between 2019 and 2021.
The wall was certainly capable of slowing down border crossings. But without added sensors, lights, and cameras that could not be destroyed, disabled, or hacked, the wall was less than effective in stopping many border crossings. Though some electronic gear does exist in some parts of the wall, it is not universal. But even with sensors, an army of border patrol agents are required to monitor the sensors and respond quickly to attempts to pass through the wall.
When the former President killed Biden’s attempt to add border patrol agents, it was clear that there was not much will to increase the number of agents and so the wall remains only marginally effective. The 3,272 breeches of the wall mentioned above support this claim.
So, as with so many of the statements of the former President, his claims of securing the border with a “big, beautiful wall” were mostly a fabrication.
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