How stupid and useless is the border wall? Let us count the ways, courtesy of unpublished government data obtained by The Washington Post: 3,272. That’s how many times smugglers have sawed through new portions erected by the insurrectionist president. $2.6 million. That’s how much it has cost taxpayers to repair the breached portions.
For the billions of taxpayer dollars it cost to build the stupid fencing, and the millions it’s cost to repair it, the breaches are not a particularly sophisticated operation. Back in 2019, The Post reported that people were breaking through with “commercially available power tools” going for $100. That still appears to be the case.
“Smuggling gangs typically cut the barrier with inexpensive power tools widely available at retail hardware stores, including angle grinders and demolition saws,” the report said. “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.”
Did I say that the breaching methods haven’t been super sophisticated? Well, the construction itself hasn’t gone all that smoothly either. Despite the insurrectionist president once claiming that his wall was “virtually impenetrable,” a portion of new fencing was ripped apart by monsoon floods last summer in Arizona. “This is what happens when @DHSgov waives all environmental laws & ignores basic science to put up a political prop,” Center for Biological Diversity borderland campaigner Laiken Jordahl tweeted at the time.
ProPublica and The Texas Tribune reported in 2020 that privately-funded fencing near Mission, Texas was also on the verge of collapse, with an engineering professor who reviewed engineering reports saying builders were “cutting corners everywhere. It’s not a Lamborghini, it’s a $500 used car.” While white supremacist Steve Bannon was pardoned of felony charges related to the We Build The Wall scheme, founder Brian Kolfage is still facing charges.
One photo more recently shared by The Post shows additional shoddy workmanship, again paid for by U.S. taxpayers. “Here’s a misshapen fix to a segment that wasn’t cut, but where contractors’ measurements came up a bit short.”
What a stupid waste of money, truly, and not just this section, but the whole damn thing. “We have more than 3,000 reminders that the centerpiece of Republicans’ immigration ‘vision’ is a $15 billion border wall that can be cut through with a $15 dollar hand saw,” said America’s Voice Deputy Director Vanessa Cardenas. “The border wall remains the perfect encapsulation of Trump’s presidency and the Trump-ified Republican Party—broken, corrupt, offensive and ineffective.”
We remain in dire need of relief, both for immigrant families who have called the U.S. their home for decades, and asylum-seekers who have more recently arrived to our borders in search of safety. But the GOP’s solution? More walls. That’s according to a dystopian, tax-your-grandparents plan from National Republican Senatorial Committee chair Rick Scott, who not only wants to finish building the stupid thing (at your continued expense, thanks), but also name it after the insurrectionist president.
Oh, but Republicans actually have presented an immigration plan, they might insist. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar has claimed that her recent legislation will “provide a dignified solution to immigrants currently living in the US,” but it’s been intentionally crafted in a way that families will never be able to access relief. “For example, the path to citizenship is a dead end thanks to a border security ‘trigger’ that will never be met,” noted American Immigration Council policy counsel Aaron Reichlin-Melnick.
The thousands of wall breaches set up “such a clear contrast,” Cardenas continued. “Republicans want to spend billions more on a border wall with more holes than Swiss cheese and name it after Donald Trump. The animating principle behind their simplistic and short sighted ‘policy positions’ is to stir hostility and fear towards immigrants seeking a better life.”
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