Construction has been completed on eight prototype border wall designs, from six different contractors. The 30-foot high prototype wall segments were designed to stop intrusions across the Mexico border, near San Diego, CA.
With the first deadline well behind them, the real challenges for the prototypes now begins. The 2,000+ miles of wall that is slated to go up first is expected to cost a hefty $26 billion – which is nothing, compared to the incredible cost of open borders an illegal immigration.
Standing in front of the towering eight prototypes, Border Patrol agents inspected the finished prototypes, and discussed how a real wall would make the border that much safer from intrusion. The current “wall” is a patchwork of utterly open spaces, and sections of ramshackle Vietnam-era corrugated steel landing mats that form the present eight-to-10-foot barrier between Tijuana and San Diego.
Another tall, 18-foot secondary steel mesh wall also separates these two countries in most of these areas of the San Diego sector, but the agents say that the mesh is easily cut open and could be breached on regular basis.
Pointing out dozens more patched holes in the secondary steel-mesh wall, one agent also said that it takes just a minute and a half for the smugglers and others to cut it open.
“The prototypes are attempting to eliminate those challenges—being able to jump up and over, being able to dig underneath, because the landing mats are just sitting on top of the dirt—so they dig under it quite often,” said Eduardo Olmos, a Customs and Border Protection agent. “The secondary wall is steel mesh, so it’s actually compromised or cut by the smugglers.”
Diaz, a CBP spokesman, picked up a hard, dirt rock the size of a baseball form the dusty ground. He said agents are often hit by the rocks that can be easily hurled over the current walls.
“The way I explain it to people is when you watch baseball and you have the World Series going on. … you see the [wounds] that people get when they get hit in the head, and they are wearing a helmet,” he said. “Imagine what happens when a rock hits agents and sometimes they are not wearing helmets.”
If Congress doesn’t fund the full wall, the CBP may still decide to use some of the new designs in certain high volume areas or to replace dilapidated existing structures.
