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Rep. Duncan Hunter: If Trump really wants a ‘beautiful’ wall, here's what he's gotta get right
Fox News.com ^ | January 9, 2017 | DUNCAN HUNTER

Posted on 01/10/2017 6:07:37 AM PST by Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

Donald Trump’s proclamation that he would build a “wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border was a major selling point in his campaign ... It was this commitment that helped propel Trump to the forefront of a crowded field of primary opponents ... and it no less helped distinguish him significantly from Hillary Clinton ... nationwide.

It will soon be show-time for Trump, ... millions of Americans are eager to see him follow through on this promise—...

There is some angst, that Trump and .. advisers might be taking a step back from ... a wall ... instead considering a virtual barrier, comprised of sensors and radars, .... That would be a serious mistake, ... it would signal a broken promise, ... virtual fencing--... has been tried before and failed. -snip-

The Trump administration would be foolish to revive the virtual border fence in place of reliable physical impediments and not learn from the lessons of the past. -snip-

The Bush administration ... Secure Fence Act was ... political opportunity seized...desperate response to public outcry and seen as an enticement to push through another amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants. -snip-

Once the prospect of amnesty unraveled, so did the Bush administration’s interest in fulfilling the mandates of the Secure Fence Act....the Bush administration ... began sidestepping the law, and incorporated a combination of less than effective impediments—including vehicle-barriers and single-layer pedestrian-fencing— to convey the mileage target was met. -snip-

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff running point, the Bush administration utilized every stall tactic available to discourage physical fence construction. What ensued was a billion-dollar boondoggle. -snip-

The Trump administration would be foolish to revive the virtual border fence in place of reliable physical impediments and not learn from the lessons of the past.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Mexico; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 115th; aliens; border; buildthewall; defendborder; duncanhunter; fence; mexico; sandiego; securefenceact; sovereingty; trumpagenda; trumptransition; virtualwall; wall
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To: RedStateRocker

Exactly. Landmines solve all of the problems. You don’t have to “blow up” all of the people coming across, and nobody will know where the land mines are located (sort of like concealed carry). So a couple of people get blown up ... make sure CNN covers it (or Whoraldo Rivera) showing the carnage in detail. Then folks will stay on their own side of the border or risk vaporization. Also, landmines disturb the countryside and is environmentally, visually, acceptable.

Landmines will cost much less than the wall and will be far more effective.


41 posted on 01/10/2017 7:21:43 AM PST by ThePatriotsFlag ( Anything FREELY-GIVEN by the government was TAKEN from someone else.)
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

Get the opinions of the Border Patrol on what will work best - not the political appointees and policy wonks, but the actual boots on the ground who are stuck enforcing our border. They have may some truly enlightening ideas.


42 posted on 01/10/2017 7:27:16 AM PST by Little Ray (Freedom Before Security!)
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

Get the opinions of the Border Patrol on what will work best - not the political appointees and policy wonks, but the actual boots on the ground who are stuck enforcing our border. They have may some truly enlightening ideas.


43 posted on 01/10/2017 7:27:17 AM PST by Little Ray (Freedom Before Security!)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

“... build what are in effect prisons, ... on the north side of the border with Mexico. ... called customs holding centers, ... under customs authority. So US federal judges cannot interfere with them.”

This part Sounds very good!

“It is indeed a very bad idea to just “kick them across the border”, because they will either immediately join one of the drug cartels, or be murdered by them as an enemy. And this can come back to bite us later.”

And why should we care what becomes of native mexican criminals? They need to be Mexico’s problem and locked up or killed within their own country. Mexico doesn’t want them? too bad.


44 posted on 01/10/2017 7:30:56 AM PST by Beautiful_Gracious_Skies
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies
Any "wall" will be a mix of technologies (correctly so). There are places where a physical wall is best, and places where a virtual wall is preferred. Physical walls in urban and suburban areas abutting the border, and virtual walls in remote areas, in which a physical wall will impede (for instance) animal migrations.

The key need is to get ICES and Border Patrol back to their designated tasks, and not doing "Muslim Outreach" (or whatever other ridiculous things that the outgoing administration imposed on them.

45 posted on 01/10/2017 7:31:30 AM PST by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel and NRA Life Member)
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To: Wonder Warthog

There needs to be a wall on every inch of the border otherwise it will take political will to enforce the border. Need to take politics out of it.


46 posted on 01/10/2017 7:33:46 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: DoodleDawg
"Twenty to thirty feet high, concrete, and I assume that there will be an access road along it as well."

Contract the engineering design to an Israeli contractor. They seem to know how to do it. Likewise to a Netherlands contractor for flood control levees.

47 posted on 01/10/2017 7:34:39 AM PST by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel and NRA Life Member)
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

I enjoy listening to Hugh Hewitt.

He won’t name the barrier a ‘wall’, instead calling it a fence.

This after more than 18 months of being told in no uncertain terms it’s going to be a wall.

HH is going to have to talk about a President Trump for another 8 years, and he is soon going to have to say the word “wall”.

I enjoy listening to him, and imagine his sweaty forehead as he is forced, over and over, to use the words ‘President Trump’ and ‘wall’.

I’ll bet his hands even shake from time to time.

Best election ever. And HH has been brought to his knees.


48 posted on 01/10/2017 7:38:46 AM PST by Balding_Eagle ( The Great Wall of Trump ---- 100% sealing of the border. Coming soon.)
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To: Wonder Warthog
Contract the engineering design to an Israeli contractor. They seem to know how to do it. Likewise to a Netherlands contractor for flood control levees.

I thought we wanted to bring jobs back to the U.S., not send them abroad. I have to believe that there are any number of engineering firms in the U.S. that could handle a construction project like this.

49 posted on 01/10/2017 7:39:52 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: central_va
"There needs to be a wall on every inch of the border otherwise it will take political will to enforce the border. Need to take politics out of it.

Wishful thinking. Without political will, even a physical wall won't work.

50 posted on 01/10/2017 7:41:48 AM PST by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel and NRA Life Member)
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To: DoodleDawg
"I thought we wanted to bring jobs back to the U.S., not send them abroad. "

Note that I said "engineering design", not construction.

51 posted on 01/10/2017 7:43:14 AM PST by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel and NRA Life Member)
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To: Boogieman

And that would be on THIS side of the physical 50 foot wall. :-)


52 posted on 01/10/2017 8:01:00 AM PST by SgtHooper (If you remember the 60's, YOU WEREN'T THERE!)
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To: Hugin

Hey!! You need to realize that there is a crowd here who survives on pessimism. So let them whine, and fear for the possibility of failure. They will always be here. :-)


53 posted on 01/10/2017 8:03:10 AM PST by SgtHooper (If you remember the 60's, YOU WEREN'T THERE!)
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To: Salgak

Agreed! It is great area to test new weapons, like robotic laser weapons.


54 posted on 01/10/2017 8:05:48 AM PST by SgtHooper (If you remember the 60's, YOU WEREN'T THERE!)
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

Virtual wall gets a virtual vote from me in the next elections. So does virtual repeal and virtual anything else.

If I want virtual, I’ll go buy one of those stupid things that holds a phone 3 inches from my face, and I don’t want virtual.


55 posted on 01/10/2017 8:33:15 AM PST by chris37 (It's time to burn the GOP down.)
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

Because the drug cartels are large, violent, and more than willing to cross the border with military style weapons to attack Americans. So trickling their criminals back to them is an awful lot more cost effective than stationing two or more US Army divisions on the border.


56 posted on 01/10/2017 8:36:03 AM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy (Friday, January 20, 2017. Reparations end.)
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To: McGavin999
"We need what they have at Yuma. It’s been very effective."


57 posted on 01/10/2017 8:52:17 AM PST by BeauBo
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
building the wall should be to the limited number of “high volume transit routes

All of these posts show extreme ignorance of reality. The wall cannot address high volume transit routes. 40% of illegals do not cross the border illegally. Of the 60% who do cross the border illegally, the vast majority do it at legal border crossings. My illegal friends ridicule the stupid who cross the desert in the false stereotype of illegals.

Go to Laredo/Nuevo Laredo or your crossing of choice. Set up a cameras to photograph all crossings on the bridge. The number coming North exceeds the number crossing south almost always. Ever wonder why?

Small family owned businesses on the border rent valid IDs to those without valid IDs. The small family business has IDs for young and old, male and female, fat and skinny all from cousins, uncles, etc who do have valid IDs. The cost to rent an ID is small, $5 or $10. At morning, noon and evening rush hours thousands of people walk across the border. There is no way ICE has the time to closely check the IDs.

That is where the high volume exists. And no wall is going to change it. If anything, a wall will just make the high volume even higher at the current high volume points.

58 posted on 01/10/2017 9:02:47 AM PST by spintreebob
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To: RedStateRocker

And a .50 cal emplacement every 500 meters or so...

There’d be no shortage of free help in the form of volunteers to man ‘em...


59 posted on 01/11/2017 2:51:23 PM PST by elteemike (Light travels faster than sound...That's why so many people appear bright until you hear them speak)
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To: elteemike
Mine fields would be good too.


60 posted on 01/11/2017 2:55:55 PM PST by RightGeek (FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)
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