Posted on 08/12/2019 11:35:37 AM PDT by BeauBo
More than 330 miles of new "border wall capability" will be in place by the end of 2020, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost said Monday, noting that repairs to the wall in the San Diego area bring the current total to "57 miles that we have put in."
An additional 47 miles is under contract. Provost told Fox News' "Fox and Friends."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
“Don’t be so easily satisfied and anxious to condemn those who want clarity and truth and the job completed.”
I don’t condemn those who are clamoring for tangible results, at all. Good on you. It serves a purpose, to keep officials on their toes.
As someone who has been watching the Wall Program closely since the inauguration, I am very impressed with what the Trump Administration has accomplished - masterful and strategic.
There is nothing ad hoc or halting in their approach - they know just what they are doing, and what they are up against. They have been very deliberate, and successful at overcoming everything the Left has been able to muster, including the loss of Congress.
Within five days of his inauguration, President Trump issued an Executive Order (13767) to build the wall, and gain full operational control of our Southern border. That order itself was the fruit of long and careful prior planning and strategizing, before his election.
Major construction and major capital investments are multi-year efforts (among professionals). In the first two years of the Trump Administration, detailed analysis and careful tradeoffs were made, while extensive preparations were made (overcoming legal challenges, establishing the contracting mechanisms, eminent domain issues, route planning, optimum design specs, etc.).
The result of the deliberate Government planning process required by the Executive Order, was a plan which has been fully staffed among the stakeholders (like Border Patrol and Congress), and was finally submitted to Congress (after incorporating their earlier comments) in December of 2018. That plan calls for $25 billion over five years for 1,100 miles of barrier at defined locations, thousands of new full time positions, and several technology programs - to achieve “Full Operational Control” of the border. This plan fully documents and justifies the spending requests, and overcomes the bureaucratic requirement/objections that budgeteers have.
During the iterative planning process, Congress inserted a wedge in ten year baseline budget (about $1.6 Billion/year for barrier) to prepare for the program, and authorized/appropriated the funding for the most urgently needed initial segments of barrier in 2017 and 2018, while the rest was prioritized, and design features/alternate approaches were compared.
The bottom line is that the planning/preparation was done well and quickly, compared to the norm for an effort like this.
When the Democrats took Congress, and attempted to de-fund the Program on purely political grounds, the Administration was fully prepared to counter their strategy. The President’s declaration of emergency secured plentiful funding for the Program to enter full scale deployment, right on schedule (and at a pace well ahead of what even the Republican Congress had envisioned).
So as a result, we are getting very well designed wall system, and it is being carefully placed according to operational priority. The first 300-400 miles (including the border cities and Rio Grande Valley) are dramatically more effective than the last 300-400 miles on the priority list (which to a large degree are closing of potential alternate routes, rather than active ones). The first 300-400 miles do the bulk of the job. And we are getting this main effort done in time for re-election, and before any future Administration could stop it.
A lot is happening, besides the successful barrier program. The major technology Programs are following a similar schedule. The first two years was more analysis and preparation, now it is full scale deployment. Technology programs however, deploy much more quickly than barrier - and typically at 1/1,000th the procurement cost per mile (although operations and maintenance costs are significantly higher in percentage terms). Very little media coverage of how quickly and dramatically our observation of the border and detection rates are improving. By next year, the operational effects of those capabilities will start becoming quite significant.
Barrier is very important in urban areas, for crowd control, stopping vehicles, and to slow down crossers until the police can respond, outside the urban areas, the value is mainly in stopping vehicles, and improving detection. Detection rates are going to be going up sharply.
Arizona, for example, is currently under contract for something a bit less than 100 miles of barrier, but over 200 miles of Integrated Fixed Towers (out of their 370 mile border), just with this year’s money. And Integrated Fixed Towers are just one of the technology programs deploying there this year.
So you can rest assured that bright people in the Trump Administration have been systematically driving a comprehensive approach to securing the border - and succeeding. It is a long term effort, but the fruits are now coming to bear.
And why in the world would you give him a "B" for his Supreme Court Appointments.
And he doesn't regulate the Justice System.....
Take your pencil, put it in a cup and find a corner....Cuz you're Blind........to all the good he has done in many ways.
“Living 2 miles from Tijuana”
Congratulations on the completion of your new solid bollard Primary Barrier.
I noticed that while they started out using 18 footers, they ended up with 30 footers on the last stretch. I get the the impression that this is a general trend, and 30 footers are growing more common.
The mighty 30 foot Secondary Barrier is progressing quickly in San Diego (about half done). It is expected to complete in January.
Merry Christmas!
Thus far 100% is replacement according to the Border Patrol. However greatly improved barriers are a top priority.
https://www.constructiondive.com/news/cbp-no-new-border-wall-has-been-built-with-trump-in-office/559299/
“Not enough”
Please see post #41, for an explanation.
you get an F when you don’[t do anything. Get it?
The USSC its still up in the air, get back to me when the justices prove they are not Roberts-clones.
I posted what Trump could have done the day after he was elected and the day after inauguration after leading the Build The Wall chants for 18 months. . That is the root of my dissatisfaction and the monthly illegals numbers are a disaster.
So ZERO new wall? As in NONE.
I pointed out what Trump could have done and when. You say NOBODY could have done better, well he could have.
“How much new and how much is replacement?”
Most of the places that need barrier the most (like border cities), already have something.
What really matters for effectiveness, is what miles need it most. No sense in building a “new mile” out in the wilderness, when illegals and drugs are streaming through an “existing” mile in a border City, or the Rio Grande Valley.
The Border Patrol has exhaustively analyzed where barrier is most needed, to justify the budget request to Congress, and produced a priority list based on actual traffic, and other operational concerns (like attacks on Officers).
The main area where “new” miles are seriously needed, is the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. That is by far the most difficult and most expensive area to build barrier, and that is why there still exists high traffic areas with no previous barrier whatsoever.
In California, Arizona and New Mexico; the “Roosevelt Reservation” secured the right of way for the entire length of the Mexican Border. Texas was not included, and the Rio Grande area has about 400 private landowners in the path of the planned wall, and many more who would be on the South side of it.
Because of the shifting path of the river, and its seasonal flooding (also subject to hurricanes off the Gulf of Mexico); and the fact that construction which could effect floodwaters must be approved under a ratified International treaty, barrier down there ends up on top of the flood levees, which can be over a mile North of the river in some places, because of local elevation, relative to the high water mark.
Because of the hurricane requirement, levee wall down there requires truly deep and massive concrete foundations, driving costs up around $25 million per mile (some simple miles in flat desert West of El Paso cost only $4 million per mile in 2017).
More than 100 miles of heavily vegetated river bank down there, where illegal traffic is high (40% of the illegal immigrant total for the whole border) have no pre-existing barrier.
On 27 July, DHS opened a 30 day public comment period, for their barrier building plans with this year’s (FY2019) funding in the Rio Grande Valley. The maps they released, show that they intend to contract the great majority of what is currently open in the Rio Grande Valley, with this year’s funds.
So that would be almost 100 “new” miles. Five contracts have already been awarded recently in the Valley, for assorted segments, and more are on the way this Fall. Site preparations and materials delivery have already begun in some places. By Christmas, several simultaneous crews should be up to full speed in the Valley - all building “new” miles.
Outside of the Rio Grande Valley, “new” miles will typically just be small segments where the terrain was a little too rough for them to build in the past. An example is San Diego’s Secondary Barrier. The old secondary had a 1 1/2 mile gap, while the new secondary will be continuous from the Ocean to the mountains. So that effort, which is well underway (about half done, completion due in January), will have 1 1/2 “new” miles. The extensive grading and clearing required to fill that gap (which will be lighted, heavily alarmed, monitored by camera, and have improved road) is going to make the “Wall System” even more effective, than bollards alone might suggest.
About 1,100 miles of total barrier building is envisioned in the comprehensive border security plan. After the Rio Grande Valley, Laredo Sector significantly needs “new” barrier. Most of the rest of the “new” miles, will be clustered toward the bottom of the priority list.
So in other words you are going to help get a radical, anti-American leftist elected. I could understand being extra picky if things were like they used to be, but the Dems have gone full-on radical and we will suffer greatly under them, much more so than now.
You already see the war the leftists are fighting against average Americans and free speech, free thought, our history and values, etc. Do you really want to contribute to that? The stakes are too high now to demand everything you want, when what you got is still light-years better than what we would have under the Dems (or mainstream Republicans for that matter).
In fact, I think Trump’s done better on your two “F” issues than any president since Eisenhower in the face of unprecedented opposition; yet you’d rather he lose a vote to help the leftists—even though this crop of Dems are bound to get F-’s for all your main issues. The Democrats desperately need to be rejected soundly right now, or they will take it as a sign to keep moving closer and closer to Stalin and Mao.
Not quite. Only 1954 to begin with.
I never realized the President had the power to arrest, try, convict and lock someone up....
Thanks but still the 330 does not include any new wall so rebuilt and improved.
I so not understand why we are go obsessed by this bollard construction when the Saudis and others have shown that double fences with no-man’s land and sensors are very effective. Ditto with the Indian-Pakistani border fence. Ditto with the expedient but apparently effective barrier the Hungarians built. Why must we spend $24mm per mile for bollard in difficult ground? Looks awfully gold plated to me.
With all respect, you need to come down from your notions of what’s Ideal, and try living and accomplishing something in the actual, political world.
It is, right now, the nastiest I’ve ever seen it; and I can’t think of a politician - (even Reagan!, who was viciously opposed, but lived in very different times) - who could have dealt with all of this as well as Trump has.
If you turn your back on Trump in 2020, you will be one of those who are selling us down the river.
“but still the 330 does not include any new wall”
No, that’s not true. The 330 will include about 100 miles of totally new barrier, where none was before. Most of it will be in Rio Grande Valley. About 90 miles of that was directly funded by Congress.
“I so not understand why we are go obsessed by this bollard construction when the Saudis and others have shown that double fences with no-man’s land and sensors are very effective.”
The threats we are defending against are different. Their border is sparsely populated - there is a lot of time and distance to intercept intruders. They post a lot of personnel along the entire length of their border, which is a hugely expensive annual cost.
We have more heavily populated areas along our border (including major cities like San Diego). In those areas, intruders can disappear very quickly - sometimes under one minute. Our barriers face frequent attacks with power tools and vehicle ramming, and are subject to mob rush tactics (like the caravans), which can tear down chain link style fences).
In rural areas, our defenses will be more based on on reliable detection and tracking, like the Saudis emphasize in their rural areas, but we still want the strength of bollards to withstand vehicle ramming, anywhere that the terrain is vehicle passable (which includes a lot of desert).
Turn my back? LOL.
you may also not have realized he hires and firs the AG You see, everyone in the executive has boss but him. He reports to us and the rest he holds accountable, when he’s in the mood.
What difference is it to waste my vote on someone who can’t perform but talks a good game. I will vote for a conservative. Stop fretting. My vote doesn’t go to underachievers.
No, I understand that...From your posts though, it seems you think he has nothing to do but what YOU want done “yesterday”...
But you go ahead and make yourself feel good and not vote or write in someone on the president line...You can take away a vote for the best President we’ve had in my 70 years and that means it won’t cancel a vote for the party that’s intent on bringing down our country...
I’m through with this...Your thinking on this is ridiculous....
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