Posted on 07/19/2016 5:34:14 PM PDT by Elderberry
McALLEN, Texas — When people talk about building a border fence, often they’re 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 nation’s 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, what’s 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 Club’s Borderlands campaign out of McAllen.
Nicol walks through the Old Hidalgo Pumphouse, one of nine locations of the Rio Grande Valley’s 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 it’s federal land and they didn’t 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 ...
Put the border a mile south or more of the river in Mexican territory.
Trump will need Fresh Water Sharks for some parts
Soon to change...
We will build this WALL on executive ORDER!! It is provided under the constitution to protect this nation. If the courts say otherwise — they will need to enforce their order with what”? . TO HELL WITH THEM!!
The border with Mexico should have been, at the time, a straight diagonal line from just south of present-day Tijuana, and down through about 10 miles south of present-day Brownsville, TX. Juarez would have been an American city. Just a straight, secure wall, which would have stopped all of the problems we're having now.
George Bush had a ton of money to build a wall ,where did that go
All I'm saying is there are different ways to halt illegal entry into our Country.
Why not utilize the river, where navigable, as part of the wall. By using patrol boats.
The wall will have to be patrolled too. Or it will be climbed over.
Because most of the Rio Grande is either completely dry or a small stream during much of the year?
Plenty of open border in Arizona too.
No wall, no America.
I think alligators would be better.
I live in Texas and have been saying for a long time here, the wall will never be built.
Please read the article and you will see why.
How would you like it if the feds built a wall inland and you and your property were on the Mexican side of the wall?
Sure your land is registered as USA but sorry folks.
I’m sorry, I’d die if some feds came here and said suck it up we are building a wall straight through you land. Good luck getting to the rest of your land.
It violates the Posse Comitatus Act.
There already are several new, high speed, highly armed border patrol boats patrolling the river.
https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R41286.pdf
Although the military does not have primary responsibility to secure the borders, the Armed Forces generally provide support to law enforcement and immigration authorities along the southern border. Reported escalations in criminal activity and illegal immigration, however, have prompted some lawmakers to reevaluate the extent and type of military support that occurs in the border region.
On May 25, 2010, President Obama announced that up to 1,200 National Guard troops would be sent to the border to support the Border Patrol. Addressing domestic laws and activities with the military, however, might run afoul of the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA), which prohibits use of the Armed Forces to perform the tasks of civilian law enforcement unless explicitly authorized. There are alternative legal authorities for deploying the National Guard, and the precise scope of permitted activities and funds may vary with the authority exercised.
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, or build it in the middle of the river. Neither is going to happen.
Now that’s funny.
You'll see hundreds of dead Bordr Patrol Agents floating on the river after being shot by the Drug Cartels.
Electrify the water. 22,000 volts should do it.
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