“Abbott set to begin 2022 campaign”
Whatever gets folks to do the right thing.
So far, I am quite impressed with this effort.
It is a quite expensive and difficult task. This first award of 8 miles worth, is running around $20 million per mile, (which is what the high end Trump-style barrier cost, for 30 foot bollards with cleared observation areas and good patrol road, with embedded sensors). If that is the cost of what they are building, this year’s budget would build about 50 miles worth. Maybe they will ramp up in coming years (which is typical for such Programs).
Every bit makes a big difference locally, but the State needs around 200-300 high priority miles overall, to significantly impede the flow from having easy alternative routes - a four year term of Governor could about do that much essential infrastructure.
Without Federal help, it is going to take years of whack-a-mole to really impede overall traffic. If President Trump was still in office, we would be getting there between this year and next.
Also, a lot of the key terrain is on about a thousand privately owned plots of land, many of whom would not willingly cooperate. Exercising eminent domain to force them to sell is politically painful, and so far, the Texas effort is not taking on unwilling landowners, so there will likely be gaps that are manpower intensive and difficult to police.
If we just leave those private sections open where the owners won’t cooperate, and all the illegals are funneled through them, they may just come around in short order.