A larger Border Patrol has been the answer for years, but no one wants to pay for it. Everyone wants to find a magic solution, when the known solution would be better. People think that technology will solve all of their problems when people on horseback may be more efficient.
]]>Vandalism is already a problem for communications towers in those remote areas, despite the bunker-like buildings and the surrounding razor-wire fences. Meth-heads in big pickup trucks back up to the gates, put a chain through them, and yank the gate right off its posts then go in and do the same thing to the door of the bunker, then loot whatever they can get into their pickup truck. I’ve seen communications towers stripped of every piece of copper wiring, which the meth-heads then haul off and sell to recyclers so they can buy more meth. To say that I think smaller less fortified “virtual fenceposts” will have a lifespan measured in hours is unnecessary. It is sad, but unfortunate, that most desert communities close to the border have an enormous meth problem and that they’ll strip anything down to the ground as soon as it is put up unless someone guards it 24 hours a day, in which case why bother with the “virtual fence”, just put the guards out there in the first place!
– Badtux the Desert Penguin
]]>This will at least allow animals to have access to water without having to blow up the fence, but have they solved the power problems? I’m assuming solar power for the instruments, as the Air Force uses solar-powered alarm systems down here, and there is certainly no power grid for most of the border.
]]>I admit that the Texans I know are not a representative sample. But I cannot find anyone among my frequent contacts who thinks a physical wall is a good idea. Your earlier remark about 40-foot walls generating a market for 41-foot ladders comes to mind. Perhaps the concept here is that people can be more easily sold on a high-tech virtual “wall,” thus keeping the “scary brown people” meme alive at least until the election.
IMHO, the entire enterprise is deplorable. The late great Molly Ivins used to say that Texans of whatever race loved “Mescans” even if they couldn’t pronounce the name right, and there’s great truth in that. Texas will soon be majority Hispanic. A great number of families span the Texas-Mexico border; I know some myself. The economic issues do need to be worked out, but the proposal for a wall… and the parts of the virtual wall already in place… have far more political than practical value.
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