California Building Border Wall With New Anti-Climb Feature

Newsweek ^ | February 14, 2024 | Khaleda Rahman

[lowbridge]

New sections of a border wall being built in California have an anti-climbing feature, according to reports.

The top of the barrier erected at Friendship Park between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, has a "metal wing or wedge, or a comma on its side with the pointy end hanging over the Mexican side of the border like an awning," according to Fox 5.

Pedro Rios, of the American Friends Service Committee, called the additions "techitos," or little rooftops.

"It's an anti-climbing feature that's meant to stop people from scaling the border wall," Rios told the station. "It's the first of its kind along the U.S.-Mexico border."

Friends of Friendship Park shared a photo on Instagram last week that shows the new barrier with the anti-climb feature.

"Division sows pain, frustration, and sadness. Behold the binational garden, where new walls obstruct views across," the group, which works to enhance access to the park, wrote in the post.

Newsweek has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment via email. Friends of Friendship Park has been contacted via social media and the American Friends Service Committee has been contacted via its website.

The metal segments added to the top of the new barrier are a prototype, a source told Fox 5. The feature will be added to other parts of the border wall if it successfully keeps migrants from climbing it.

Rios said there are concerns the feature could be deadly.

"We continue to see an increase in people that are falling from the border wall and seeking medical treatment," he said. "In this case, if they fall onto the Mexican side then we won't have an accounting for how dangerous this new feature might be."

[Elsie]

[Ancesthntr]

The former. Firings or prison should fix the latter, though I think the real problem is with the suits in DC.