But I would wall 500 miles
And I would wall 500 more
Just to be the man who walls a thousand miles
To fall down at your door
Posted on 09/05/2019 8:19:03 PM PDT by BeauBo
President Donald Trump talked with reporters about his administration’s effort to build the wall at the southern border on Sept. 4 and said he expects the wall to be completed at key places by the end of 2020.
Talking with reporters at the Oval Office, the President said his administration is currently building or replacing “very large sections of the wall” and it is happening “rapidly.” His comments came a day after the Department of Defense (DOD) said it was freeing up $3.6 billion in funds to build the wall that were previously budgeted for other projects.
“We’re building different sections simultaneously. And we think by the end of next year, which will be some time right after the election, actually—but we think we’re going to have close to 500 miles of the wall which will be complete,” said Trump.
The president said this 500 miles will take care of all the areas that his administration wanted to protect and it includes some “marginal areas.”...
DOD said in its briefing on Sept. 3 said that the identified projects “did not include family housing, barracks or dormitory projects; did not include projects that had already been awarded; and did not include projects that were expected to have fiscal year 2019 award dates.”...
“These funds will be made available to the secretary of the Army only if and when it is needed for obligation. These projects are important. The intent is prioritizing funds in this manner, is to provide time to work with Congress to determine opportunities to restore funds, as well as work with our allies and partners on improving cost—cost burden-sharing for the overseas construction projects,” said the DOD.
Comptroller Elaine McCusker said some of these projects will be delayed but not canceled.
(Excerpt) Read more at theepochtimes.com ...
It would require ramping up to a rate of about a mile per day by new year - challenging, but possible.
Contract awards and groundbreakings are speeding up, and more and more crews will be working concurrently.
500 miles plus the upgrades to existing barriers would be well over 1000 miles total. I am guessing that is 1/3 the total length. And the areas not done are the more remote and inhospitable areas
Question from a not well traveled Staten Islander :)
How much of that 2000 miles do any of you guys familiar with it think needs a wall?
Thanks ahead of time.
Look at how he had to fight to get just 500 miles. And the fighting is far from over. No one else could have done it! Only Donald J. Trump can defeat the Deep State UniParty!
The total US-Mexico land border is 1,954 miles. That will be more than half, and much of the parts receiving barriers this year are the higher traffic/crossing areas.
Knowing human nature, the invaders will divert to these remote, inhospitable areas despite the difficulties. The rewards of both human smuggling and invading remain too lucrative.
All of it needs something, but some of it already has existing barriers like sheer cliffs, mountains, a giant lake... So not all of it makes sense to wall off. Putting a wall in the middle of the lake doesn’t make much sense if it wasn’t already illegal by treaty anyway, for example. However, walling up the land flanking the lake and a certain distance into it does make sense.
It will be easier to concentrate manpower in these areas.
Right now they have way to much area to cover.
Yup, but that will slow them down and reduce the number of crossings as is. Putting a 30’ wall on top of a 200’ sheer cliff is probably just a bit superfluous, for example. In areas like that, the “virtual border” surveillance systems make a bit more sense.
If they leave ONE open mile, the SOBs will find it.
Gotcha. Thanks.
I’m surprised everything is being built so peacefully without a million protesters throwing themselves in front of workers :)
But I would wall 500 miles
And I would wall 500 more
Just to be the man who walls a thousand miles
To fall down at your door
Anyone with a computer can find it. Being able to reasonably *exploit* it is another matter and will take quite some time. Construction takes time - doesn’t it make more sense to prioritize blocking the areas we already know are being heavily utilized and work down the list?
Or, put another way - do you start by busting the industrial scale drug dens or do you start by sending cops to walk around busting individuals who may smell like weed? You don’t have infinite resources; rational people want to get high-bang-for-buck results first.
A lot of this is in areas where these protestors would die in an afternoon from the Southwest heat, or where it would be stupid expensive and difficult to bus protestors. Wait for more to be built in cities in the fall and winter for the protestors.
Gotcha :)
Glad the guys can build in peace for now.
“500 miles plus the upgrades to existing barriers would be well over 1000 miles total.”
It is about 500 miles of Trump barrier in total by the end of 2020. Perhaps about 100 miles of that will be “new” barrier (where there was nothing before), mostly in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.
The total Southern border is 1,954 miles, but there’s only about 1,100 miles where barrier really makes sense.
Although we are looking at about half of the total potential barrier being built around the election, they will be the higher priority miles, that make the greater impact.
Additionally, areas beyond where the barrier is built, will be coming under persistent surveillance by new technology programs, and the whole of the border will be under increased surveillance generally, through new sensors, including more airborne sensors, like drones.
“If they leave ONE open mile, the SOBs will find it.”
That may be true, but unless they cut the employee count of the CBP, there will be 1,000 or more people there to greet the invaders.
Shemp Smith said recently on his Faux News show that no new wall had been built. New wall that replaced dilapidated fences that could be stepped through or over did not count.
“How much of that 2000 miles do any of you guys familiar with it think needs a wall?”
Border Patrol has had to analyze the crap out of every mile, to justify their budget requests to Congress, and to withstand the “20 questions” from every green eyeshade guy in the Congressional Budget Office (and the OMB within the Administration, before the request even goes to Congress).
During President Trump’s first week in office, he issued Executive Order 13767, which required DHS to produce a comprehensive plan to achieve complete operational control of the Southern border. Congress finally accepted the plan, after its questions/objections were addressed, in December 2018.
The answer is about 1,100 miles of barrier are needed ($25 billion, five years, thousands of new full time positions, and several technology programs to monitor every mile of the border).
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