How much border wall does $5 bil. get you?
It appears somebody went out there and figured it all out:
As Congress battles over President Trump’s demand for $5 billion in border-wall funding, Homeland Security officials explained Friday what that money could
actually buy.
According to DHS officials, the funding would cover the construction of 215 miles of “wall system” on the southern border.[..]
Authorities estimate the total length of the US-Mexico border as somewhere between 1900 and 2000 miles. And the government has been shut down over funding for 215 of those miles.
MORE:
[…] What that system would include is a matter of debate.
But DHS officials say it could cover the replacement of “dilapidated” fencing, new wall sections and secondary wall structures, as well as roads and lights for Border Patrol agents.
The “wall system” also includes sensor technology that would enable agents to detect movement coming toward the wall, “starting the clock” for officials to respond before anyone starts to try to scale it.
DHS officials said that of the 215 “linear miles,” well over a hundred miles would be brand new wall in places where there is no barrier now. The majority of this construction would be in the Rio Grande area, specifically the Laredo sector, along the Texas border with Mexico.
DHS officials said those 215 miles would be the most “critical” locations that need to be addressed. The total cost of a wall could be upwards of $25 billion – additional funding in the future could go toward other locations. […]
Our border policy now is the moral equivalent of leaving all of your doors and windows on your house open and unlocked while you go out of town for two weeks of vacation. (And advertise said vacation all over social media.)
The drug cartels have turned Mexico into a living hell. Disease runs rampant down there. Most of what we’re getting are additional “customers” for our already-bursting-at-the-seams social welfare net. And our so-called leaders won’t allow us the least bit of protection from any of it.
Think about this: It’s a REPUBLICAN Congress that can’t secure that funding.
We, the American citizens were promised a wall when Simpson-Mazzolli was passed in 1986. It was the quid pro quo for giving amnesty for millions of illegal aliens. The liberals got their amnesty, but Congress has renigged on funding the wall part of the deal for decades. It is good to see President Trump holding their feet to the fire to finally make good on this old and outstanding promise by Congress.
Why should the already overtaxed American taxpayer pay anything for a wall the president promised would be paid for by Mexico?
Keeping the illegals out will save the American taxpayer a whole lot more money than the cost of building the wall, in welfare, education costs, medical care, etc. Illegal aliens are a huge drain on taxpayer money, at the federal, state, and local level.
Ted Cruz recently introduced a bill to make Mexicans pay through shutting access of illegals to welfare, not letting illegals take refundable tax credits, and imposing fees on those who enter legally. I like that approach. I also like the approach of putting a tax on all funds wired back to Mexico and Central America. If the governments of those countries will not pay up, at least we can make their citizens do so.
Well how do you feel about the already over taxed American taxpayers, funding Israel’s border security to the tune of $38 billion? Seems asinine to me when we can’t even cough up $25 billion for OUR own Nation.
The 60 year old US drug war has created gangs which hav created the problem. It’s just like alchohol prohibition created gangsters 100 years ago. Walls are for 2 things, keeping people in and keeping people out. Careful what u wish for.
Oh! The progressive libertarian mantra of open borders plus drug legalization? What rubbish!
The criminal gangs of Mexico have gotten into human smuggling in a big way. Smuggling illegal aliens is the largest source of income these days for all but one of them. Most illegal aliens arriving in the US have been smuggled by these criminal gangs. The grandfather of the 9 year old girl who recently died soon after she was apprehended illegally crossing the border has told the media that the family still owes one of the crime cartels for smuggling her.
The human smugglers are a big problem in Europe, too, and the source of most illegal alien migrants who arrive there. Austria’s Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has just announced a tough new policy to deal with them. Austria is now automatically rejecting any asylum application from any migrant who has been smuggled, pointing out that this will destroy the business model of the human smugglers.
.http://www.beaufortobserver.net/Blog-3931.112112-14807.114136-Austria-to-automatically-reject-asylum-seekers-who-have-been-smuggled.html
The US needs to follow Austria’s lead and automatically reject any asylum application from migrants who have been smuggled.
Yes we need a wall to stop the flow of illegal aliens who are bleeding us dry financially. And in spite of the stupid liberlarian squawking, I am not aware of ANY border wall to keep undesirables out that has EVER been turned around to keep anyone it.
Why the shut down???
A few weeks ago Trump was saying that his Administration could get the money from other places in the budget. Of course he also told us that Mexico would pay for it. HA!
The shutdown is because Pelosi and Schumer would rather benefit the Mexican crime cartels, the gangs like MS13, and terrorists than cooperate with President Trump to secure our border. The idiot Democrats want open borders and abolition of our border security force, ICE.
Hungary stopped most of the flow of illegal aliens across its southern border by erecting a double layer 14 foot high border wall on the entire border with Serbia in 90 days. When the illegals went around it through Croatia, they had a similar wall on that border up in 30 days. If Hungary can do it, so can the US.
MS13 is an American crime gang. We grow them here then send them to Central America where they both terrorize those countries and move back to the U.S. It is OUR problem.
Trump said that Mexico would pay for the wall. He also said that he could find money in other Departments withing his Administration. So why is it in the lap of Congress?
The important thing is to get the wall built, not to quibble about who pays for it. The cost to the taxpayer from the flood of illegal aliens far exceeds the cost of the wall.
MS13 is a criminal gang of illegal aliens from El Salvador that even scares the bejesus out of the Crips and Bloods. The flow of illegal aliens from El Salvador just feeds its growth. Its members are not US citizens, but illegal aliens from El Salvador. It is nothing short of Orwellian to call them an American gang.