Posted on 07/19/2016 5:34:14 PM PDT by Elderberry
McALLEN, Texas When people talk about building a border fence, often theyre talking about Texas.
Nearly half of the border between Mexico and California, Arizona and New Mexico already has some sort of barrier. But Texas, which claims 1,245 of 2,000 miles on the nations southern border, has only about 100 miles of fence.
The Rio Grande, narrow in West Texas but swelling to an average of 200 feet across in the Rio Grande Valley area, has been a natural divider.
A decade after the Secure Fence Act required the Department of Homeland Security to build up to 700 miles of border fence, whats been built so far is not only what made sense tactically, but what was easiest to put up, says Scott Nicol, who leads the Sierra Clubs Borderlands campaign out of McAllen.
Nicol walks through the Old Hidalgo Pumphouse, one of nine locations of the Rio Grande Valleys World Birding Center, less than half a mile from the border. A sign promises a pedestrian walking trail into the National Wildlife Refuge next door, yet the path ends at an enormous metal gate flanked by a fence made from 18-foot-high steel beams.
They built this here because its federal land and they didnt have to fight anybody, he says.
Most of the land along the border in the Western states is owned by the federal government, something known as the Roosevelt Easement. This 60-foot buffer does not exist in Texas, where private landowners must give up their property for a fence to be built.
To put up the 100 miles of fence that exist today required 400 landowner condemnations and led to several long and costly lawsuits.
(Excerpt) Read more at tucson.com ...
Soo... You would rather have druggies and diseased illegals cutting a path through your property?
Wouldn't that be an Act of War?
Oh, wait. We already have a War on Drugs. Don't we?
If we're already at war with those mutha's, then its well past time to "Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war"
TPWD will come after you for illegal fishing methods.
Probably to the "charities" that spearhead "refugee resettlement".
So is there a need for a Wall in that part of the Border?
Now where I hunted, on the border, outside of Lobo, I have driven across the Rio Grande and it was completely dry.
That's where the wall is needed. Not where the river can be patrolled by boat.
I believe Trump will deploy 3RD Corps from Fort Hood to the border. The Corps of Engineers are a natural to construct the wall. Trump realizes that a show of force on the border will make Mexico think twice about resistance
Eminent domain, to take all the land that will be needed, is going to take a long, long time.
I live many years in southeast Texas and now live on the mid atlantic east coast. For a
fact you’ll find many in this area that I would venture that are here illegally. They work
the fields, do the landscaping, brick/foundation work, etc and pay few or no taxes to support
our government. I am totally confuse as to how they get here, remain and apparently no
one in gov’t/law enforcement is concerned.
I don’t know what the solution is but in my lifetime the change has been drastic.
So tell me, what if your property is on the other side of the fence?
Open season, no limit should do the trick.
Were they actually sent? For how long?
The lawyers will have a field day.
The building of the wall will devalue all the private land on the border side of the fence.
Unless the govt wants to pay all the lawyer fees and court costs, the govt should purchase all the land affected.
I can't see this wall being built. But, I'm not much of a visionary.
Build it in the center of the Rio Grande. Let em climb over that.
Gov. Abbott extends National Guard on the border in response to unaccompanied minors
“The only other options are to build the wall along the river, cutting all of the ranches on the US side off from the water”
Plumbing was invented thousands of years ago. I hear the technology is still used in some places.
Not much water the further north you go.
Where I drive across, its completely dry.
I see a good spot for a military base.
Wall it up on Mexican side.
Minefields work very well. They are brutal deadly and totally indiscriminate and very cheap. Only the insane try and walk across them.
Post signs in multiple languages that say, “if you walk past this point you will die from an explosive device.
Although this may seem insanely cruel and it is, what is going on in the deserts of the Southwest is far worse. The last statistics I read is about 400 bodies are recovered every year. The bodies are those of illegals that crossed the border in isolated desert areas and expired due to heat and lack of water. The real number is actually more. Many bodies lie in the desert undiscovered. Buzzards and coyotes devoured them and nothing is left but scattered bleached bones.
These people particularly the women, are used and abused by the smugglers. It is not pretty. Some die at the hands of their smugglers before they get into the United States. Some women suffer indignities that can not be printed.
My question is this:
What is more ethical, an open border which allows hundreds to die every year due to desert heat and smugglers, or a mine field which only the insane would walk across? A mine field would kill a small fraction of what the desert heat does every year.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.