The massive border wall along the entire U.S./Mexico border ain’t happening. To quote a certain orange madman: you know it, I know it, everybody knows it. But it’s still worth checking out this Dallas News profile on some of the most vocal opponents of the wall:
Pecan farmer Shannon Ivey is all for increasing border security.
People who crossed the border illegally used to regularly cut through the fourth-generation Texan’s property in this small farming town about 40 miles from El Paso.
“Prior to the fence going up, we’d have groups of 30 to 40 people coming through all at once,” said Ivey, referring to the 18-foot barrier that was built on his property during the George W. Bush administration.
“But I think a combination of a fence, electronic surveillance, and boots on the ground. I think a nation has a right to secure its borders, so I’m a believer in that,” Ivey said.
But he is not convinced the border needs a new barrier.
“You don’t need a great wall of China. You don’t need a big, concrete wall,” he said.
Wow, it’s almost like the border residents who actually live there and not part-time at a golf resort in Florida know what’s best for their own communities. Not even a bipartisan set of congressmen who represent the El Paso area—Democrat Beto O’Rourke and Republican Will Hurd—think the wall is a remotely intelligent idea.
“We’re in agreement here that building a wall from sea to shining sea is the most expensive and least effective way to do border security,” said Hurd.
Nationally, support for Donald Trump’s wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for makes the last season of the Celebrity Apprentice look like a ratings bonanza. Last month, a Quinnipiac poll found “that the American public overwhelmingly opposes the wall, by a 64-33 percent margin.” Among border residents, that number is even higher, with 72 percent opposing a wall.
In El Paso, “the council passed a resolution denouncing construction of the wall.” In fact, El Paso isn’t at all interested in going the Trump route and walling itself off from the world, but instead “wants more funding for bridges” to encourage spending and tourism, which is already showing signs of declining thanks to Trump’s xenophobic policies:
The city spends about $1.3 million a year to help keep more international bridge lanes staffed and open to reduce border-crossing times.
Like thousands of other Ciudad Juarez residents, 20-year-old Estefania Galvan crosses the Paso del Norte bridge to visit relatives and shop in El Paso every week. With all the talk of the wall, Galvan, like many other Mexicans interviewed, said she’s thinking twice about where she should spend her hard-earned pesos. Mexican shoppers contribute $4.5 billion annually to the economies of Texas border cities, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
“As a Mexican, I question whether I should bother to come across anymore,” Galvan said. “My perspective has changed. I just don’t feel comfortable here anymore.”
“True border security is tied to economic security,” said El Paso City Council member Peter Svarzbei. “To make the border secure here, we should be talking about investing in our ports of entry, in our infrastructure that helps to facilitate the safe, efficient crossing of goods and people.” Again, it might be better to listen to more knowledgable folks, rather than someone who couldn’t keep Trump Steaks running for more than two months.