Just Another Brick In The Wall
My apologies to Roger Waters for stealing his verse, even though he’s a raving liberal from England who should shut his pie hole about American politics, but I digress.
The lie about the border wall is that we have 700 miles already built, well OK, but it’s the type of fencing that’s misleading about the claim. There are altogether about 650 miles of fencing along the southern border: 352 miles of primary fencing, 36 miles of secondary fencing and 299 miles of vehicle barrier fencing.
- Primary or pedestrian fencing. (pictured below) This type of fencing is considered “front-line” fencing and it focuses on preventing individuals on foot from crossing the border. Several different styles of primary or pedestrian fencing line the border, including wire-mesh, bollard and landing mat. There are 352.8 miles of primary or pedestrian fencing.
- Secondary fencing. (pictured below) This is a second layer of fencing that sits behind a layer of primary or pedestrian fencing. There are 36 miles of secondary fencing located in various regions of Arizona, Texas and California.
- Vehicle barrier fencing. (pictured below) This type of fencing focuses on preventing vehicle crossings. According to Ron Johnson’s report, “vehicle barrier fence consists of barriers used primarily in remote areas to prohibit vehicles engaged in drug trafficking and human smuggling operations to cross the border. These fences can be easily navigated by those on foot. There are 299.8 miles of vehicle barrier fencing.
There are 2000 miles along the border with Mexico, congress approved 50 billion for fence construction in 2006, of which 2.3 billion has been spent. Obama’s Homeland Security shut down any further appropriations in 2010.
If I have this correct, only 388 miles of “effective” barrier has been erected, this excludes the vehicle barrier fencing which does nothing to stop foot traffic.
The remaining 1350 miles of border security? How does that $1.3 billion sound now?