And the stock tanks draw their water from...???
Rainfall? Sometimes. But there isn't a whole lot of rainfall between El Paso and Laredo.
Wells? Sometimes. But there isn't a whole lot of groundwater between El Paso and Laredo.
The river? And even that is usually dry between Fort Hancock and Presidio.
Why would you want to cut your own people, their livestock (and wildlife) from a vital resource in a semi-arid landscape? And, at the same time, give the other side free and unfettered access to the resource?
Securing the border is a necessity. A fence works well across open desert. But, on a river, all it does is burden your own citizens (and attract climbers, tunnellers or clippers to the more remote regions).
Why not do what the Israelis do -- on the Jordan? They know a lot more about this business than we do. And they use armed outposts and patrols.
Amen.
You and a few other posters act like very cow and bull and calf in Texas drinks directly from the Rio Grande. Someone who’s capable of being objective and who also knows the true water situation in south Texas needs to provide some factual input.
But there is no way that that river is providing water directly for cattle more than a few miles to the north.
But whatever the water for cattle situation is, it is long past time that those narrow local interest were made a distant second to the national security need to get control of the southern border. Build the fence above the river for and if cattle farming is no longer possible, then cattle farming on the border isn’t that important.