Posted on 03/29/2017 7:47:33 AM PDT by GIdget2004
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Tuesday mused about the difficulties of building President Trump's signature border wall on the Mexican border, asserting that America can't give away the Rio Grande to Mexico in the process.
"The border is complicated, as far as building a physical wall," he said during a speech to the Public Land Council in Washington D.C., according to E&E News.
"The Rio Grande, what side of the river are you going to put the wall? We're not going to put it on our side and cede the river to Mexico. And we're probably not going to put it in the middle of the river."
The report also said Zinke admitted that the administration could instead rely on electronic defenses or could skip building the wall in certain areas where terrain may make crossing improbable.
Thanks to a 1970 treaty negotiated between the United States and Mexico, the middle of the Rio Grande serves as the boundary between the two countries in some places. That treaty, as well as the natural shifts of the river, served as a stumbling block to previous attempts to build border fencing and could complicate the Trump administration's push for a wall.
Trump made the construction of a border wall to stem the flow of illegal immigration a centerpiece of his presidential campaign. Once in the Oval Office, Trump almost immediately signed an executive order calling for the wall to be built and the Department of Homeland Security has requested proposals for the wall.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Water is precious in the west. The water is for cattle on both sides so a wall can’t do it but a mesh fence that is unclimbable would work especially if equipped with sensors, sirens, and cameras
http://www.allgov.com/news/us-and-the-world/mexico-owes-water-to-us-140909?news=854201
“Mired in the drought that has dried up so much of the Southwest, Texas is losing patience with Mexico, which owes the state millions of gallons of water.
Under the terms of a 1945 agreement, Mexico and Texas are supposed to send each other a certain amount of water. Texas share comes from the Colorado River, while Mexicos originates along the Rio Grande.
Each year, Mexicos allotment is supposed to total 350,000 acre feet (one acre-foot of water is equivalent to 326,700 gallons). But the country has fallen behind on its deliveries, and currently owes 380,000 acre-feet to the U.S. Thats more water than is used by the 1.5 million Texans in the Rio Grande Valley each year.
Mexican officials insist they cant help the shortfall due to lack of rainfall going back two decades. We have had a prolonged drought since 1994 until now. It has been difficult for Mexico to give this water, Ignacio Peña Treviño, Mexicos representative on the International Boundary and Water Commission, told The Washington Post. There isnt rain like there was in the past.
But people in Texas arent buying the excuse, claiming Mexico hasnt suffered the kind of drought conditions the Lone Star State has. They havent been in any sort of significant drought conditions since March of 2012, Carlos Rubinstein, chairman of the Texas Water Development Board, told the newspaper. That excuse, pardon the pun, doesnt hold water.
A study by Texas A&M University says that losses because of Mexicos failure to deliver its share of water total $229 million and about 5,000 jobs. Still, Rio Grande tributaries in Mexico contain much less water than they have historically. Meanwhile, demand south of the border has gone up, with Mexicans moving north to work in automobile factories in that region.”
The Rio Grande is only part of the border, specifically, it is the border between Texas and Mexico. That leaves New Mexico, Arizona, and California with dry land as a border. No reason to not get started in these three states.
Do whatever it takes...
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Proclamation_758
... Now, therefore, I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, do hereby declare, proclaim and make known that there are hereby reserved from entry, settlement or other form of appropriation under the public land laws and set apart as a public reservation, all public lands within sixty feet of the international boundary between the United States and the Republic of Mexico, within the State of California and the Territories of Arizona and New Mexico...
Lots of public land back in 1907. I imagine any sales since then reserved this easement. Though maybe they didn’t.
I just downloaded 100 pictures if the Rio Cease Pool. I did not see one animal drinking from that toilet.
The boarder should have been 1/2 mile south of the river.
Sorry for the mix up.
We'll take care of cleaning the up and putting the wall where it should be.
Teach them to cut grass ...
Not defeatist, just a realist, some things are just more important than what the peasants want. The War on Drugs is one of those things.
If the war on drugs is really a way to fill our privatized prisons,”
Never has been and never will be, the War on Drugs is about Power and Control and Getting RICH at the expense of the American Serfs while creating a Semi Police State to exert more authority over the populace.
Note: No cows starved to death or died of thirst building this highway.
Build the whole thing on the Mexican side and annex the territory plus enough buffer zone for a thick minefield.
Arrange buildings at checkpoints so they spell out “GO AWAY” when viewed from space.
Sounds good to me. Who is Mexico going to complain to, the UN? Pfft..
Well said. I’m fed up with the American’ts as well.
They don’t like the idea of a wall because they know it would work. Screw them. We’re taking back our country!
Good comment. Thx
Building a wall doesn’t cede what’s on the other side of it.
There have been “committee” meetings since 11/07/16 at various local watering holes around here to formulate a plan for this project. After much consideration and debate, the consensus is that for the Texas portion of the border there should be two walls. In essence, a double wall stretching from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico. Upon completion the space between the walls would be converted into a moat and stocked with piranhas. The big problem yet to be solved is what to do about Lake Amistad . . . it’s great fishing lake.
Supporting the war on drugs got us a full-spectrum Orwell style surveillance and police state while making zero positive impact on rates of drug use.
At this point, one has to have a hole in their head to want to continue the madness; if not through being appalled at all the senseless violence, at least through the self-interest of not wanting to pay for it.
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