XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics, talk.politics.guns
XPost: tx.politics

On 20 Nov 2019, crocker <[email protected]> posted some news:[email protected]:

Any illegal alien is fair game for shooting target practice. One
hundred shots minimum.

McALLEN, Texas � The Biden administration�s plan to build new barriers
along the U.S.-Mexico border in South Texas calls for a �movable� design
that frustrates both environmentalists and advocates of stronger border enforcement.

The plans for the nearly 20 miles of new barrier in Starr County were
made public in September when the federal government sought public
input. The following month, the administration waived 26 federal laws protecting the environment and certain species to speed up the
construction process.

�The United States Border Patrol did not ask for this downgraded border
wall,� Rodney Scott, a former U.S. Border Patrol chief said.

Construction is moving forward despite President Joe Biden�s campaign
promise not to build more wall and amid an increase in migrants coming
to the nation�s southern border from across Latin America and other
parts of the world to seek asylum. Illegal crossings topped 2 million
for the second year in a row for the government�s budget year that ended
Sept. 30.

Biden says border wall doesn�t work

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People such as Scott who want more border security believe the barriers
won�t be strong enough to stop people from crossing illegally. Environmentalists, meanwhile, say the design actually poses a greater
risk to animal habitat than former President Donald Trump�s border wall.

Biden has defended the administration�s decision by saying he had to use
the Trump-era funding for it. The law requires the funding for the new
barriers to be used as approved and for the construction to be completed
in 2023.

Most barriers on the border were erected in the last 20 years under
Trump and former President George W. Bush. Those sections of border wall include Normandy-style fencing that resembles big X�s and bollard-style
fencing made of upright steel posts.

Biden�s barrier will be much shorter than the 18- to 30-foot
concrete-filled steel bollard panels of Trump�s wall. It also could be temporary.

An example of the style of barrier his administration will use can be
seen in Brownsville, about 100 miles southeast of Starr County. Metal
bollards embedded into 4-foot-high cement blocks that taper toward the
top sit along the southern part of a neighborhood not far from the
curving Rio Grande.

Over the last year, the Rio Grande Valley region was the fourth-busiest
area for the number of people crossing into the U.S. illegally, though
it was the busiest in previous years.

With the design planned for Starr County, federal border agents will be
able to move around the fencing, said Democratic U.S. Rep. Henry
Cuellar, who represents Starr County. �So it�s one of those things where
if they want to direct traffic, they can move it.�

Scott agreed that the �moveable� fences can be used as an emergency
stopgap measure to block off access in some areas. But he warned that if
the fencing isn�t placed far enough into the ground, someone might be
able to use a vehicle to shove it out of the way, provided they don�t
mind damaging the vehicle.

Laiken Jordahl, a conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, said mountain lions, bobcats, javelinas, coyotes, white-tail
deer, armadillos, jack rabbits, ground squirrels, and two endangered,
federally protected plants � Zapata bladderpod and prostrate milkweed �
may be affected.

Jordahl said the design the Biden administration is using �will block
even the smallest species of animals from passing through the barrier.�

�The one advantage for making it shorter is, I guess if somebody falls
while they�re climbing over it, they aren�t falling as far,� Scott
Nicol, a board member of the Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, said.

Nicol, who lives in the Rio Grande Valley, is familiar with the type of barriers Biden�s administration will use, the terrain, and the weather
in Starr County. He is concerned about unintended consequences,
particularly on the Rio Grande that separates U.S. and Mexico.

�You know, if Starr County gets hit by a big rainstorm and the water has
to drain into the river, these walls � whether it�s the bollard walls or
the Jersey barrier walls � are going to block the movement of that water
and dam it up,� Nicol said.

Last month, the Center for Biological Diversity along with about 100
other organizations sent the U.S. government a letter pleading for reconsideration of environmental protection laws. To date, they have not received an answer.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/11/bidens-movable-wall-is-criticize d-by-environmentalists-and-those-who-want-more-border-security-00126714

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