@psycoskunk Said
I think that instead of asking for a wall, Trump should instead be focusing on, oh I don't know...
Connecting the more than 100 already-existing mini-walls along the US-Mexico border?
I mean yeah, there's the really big walls near the official border crossings, but then there's also the ones that regular people, or the border patrol, or homeowners living near the border have put up as well. Walls that stretch for a good 10-30 feet across and then just... stop. And then half a mile in either direction, you see some other wall/fence set up, sometimes closer/further from the border than the wall you just saw. And there's a good 300 foot gap between the last wall and this one, so it's not really doing its job.
Also there's the 'wall' in New Mexico that's literally just a 3 foot tall sheep fence going for about a mile or two, so there's that. Texas has a few large sheets of metal sticking out of the ground in some places, which I think are supposed to be the walls, just not attached to other walls/poles. Why not just try to connect the already-existing walls and demolish the less-than-effective ones?
Because a contiguous wall is ineffective for what it is intended for.
The barriers that exist where they do, while not serving as a continuous barrier do serve a purpose for where they are.
Water runoff and animal migration are issues in the border area. You f*** that up and it f***s up so many other things. You have a wall an animal and rushing water can get through, people could get through too. Seriously there are better ways to spend billions of dollars to secure the border without a stupid ineffectual wall.
Also some of those fences are on private property to keep in cattle. Those ranches are going to lose their land completely for the wall and a buffer zone. So chances are they will move northward to where the private property will now end and not even be on the border anymore. Bad enough ranchers are taking a hit on the land loss, they have to buy all new fences. I’d move my fence, even if was a s***ty sheep fence...because it’s mine and for my animals.