Please consider 60-Foot Long Tunnel Found Next to Border Wall in Texas.
Patrol agents discovered a tunnel under construction in Hidalgo, Texas that would have gone under the border wall.
The 60-foot long tunnel is reportedly almost impossible to see standing near the Rio Grande River. That’s because it sits at the bottom of a 30-foot embankment, so you can only see it if you’re on the river. Agents said they brought pictures to show President Trump during his recent visit.
“You’ve seen them on the news in Arizona and New Mexico and stuff like that but I’ve never seen one in the Valley,” Brand said. “That’s the first one I’ve seen that’s in our back yard.”
The Hill adds Tunnel Commentary.
“You’ve seen them on the news in Arizona and New Mexico and stuff like that, but I’ve never seen one in the Valley,” Orthal Brand Jr., who is president of the Hidalgo County Water Improvement District 3, told the local station. “That’s the first one I’ve seen that’s in our back yard.”
“It’s hard for me to put a piece of equipment on the edge of a 30-foot sand cliff, and reach down and try to collapse something, without putting my own piece of equipment and my operator at risk,” he said.
Brand said he is working with the Border Patrol and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to find another way to get rid of the tunnel. He told the Rio Grande Guardian earlier this week that his team also plans to enlist the help of an explosion company.
“My men climbed down and looked at it. It needs dynamite to blow it. I would like to praise the marine division of Border Patrol,” he told the international news service.
“Boots on the ground would not have seen it. Helicopters would not have found it. Drones, sensors, would never have found it,” he added. “You could only see it from the river. They looked at the cliff and found it. It was all covered up with bamboo and brush. It looked kind of dry, which alerted them to it.”
Double Wall
Perhaps we need my double wall proposal: Build two walls, 40 yards apart, and shoot anything with two legs that gets between the walls.
I was not serious, but it would work. Several responded that they like the idea. One suggested mines.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
An El Chapo drug tunnel, Illegals don’t go through that. I doubt the picture is the actual tunnel (media garb) we need that border (fencing) if it could be a wall I say yes. We need to end subsidizing this way of entering this country or you will be screwed. The democrats need to be pushed up against the wall.
I want totally open borders. The government don’t own us. Why do I need a passport to leave? Why do we need VISAs? Governments want to control their people and the way to do that is to confine them.
Please leave your front door unlocked and also leave your car unlocked so you do not confine anybody.
Also to experience what USA will become when there are no borders please go to Guatemala to live there for 1 year with no money and also shred your passport while in Guatemala so you can liberate yourself from the evils of passports.
Guatemala has some nice spots –
Sorry, correction, Advancingtime
Advancingtime
1 min
The 80 -20 rule supports a wall in that it is easier to “WALK” across a border than tunnel under a wall.
Oh, how we take “edit” for granted and miss it when its gone.
You can edit posts on this site. Just click on the three dots to the right of “Reply”.
80 -20 rule supports a wall in that it is easier to wall across a border than tunnel under a wall.
The reason I have a hard time taking the anti-wall arguments seriously is that they are inherently inconsistent and illogical:
I honestly don’t think most people really have an opinion on the subject. I think they just hate Trump, and so whatever he wants must be bad. Why did people like Pelosi vote for walls before? Because, they made sense. Why don’t they vote for them now? Because Trump wants it.
You’re missing a key argument, that a wall doesn’t really matter. I have no strong opinion on this subject for that reason. If we’d debated this 30 years ago it would have borne more merit.
Since then, we’ve created a bankster’s paradise with policies that benefit a few at the expense of the many, privatizing profits and socializing losses. We’re already at an advanced stage of decay and before long there will be far more suffering on both sides of the border anyway, wall or no wall.
Once this giant debt ponzi blows, people will have much more pressing matters to attend to. We certainly won’t be sitting around in our slippers debating the finer points of border security.
Bringing in 29.5 million illegal immigrants to USA since the 1970’s with the flow of illegals boosted after Reagan’s 1986 amnesty for millions of illegals and illegal immigrants having 5+ million kids born in USA and getting birthright citizenship has ENABLED bigger profits for the banker class and large company owners and stagnated wages and lowered wages for lower middle class and working class.
Due to the wage stagnation and wage lowering effects of illegal immigration the only way banks and companies have been able to have their cake (lower wages) and eat it (increased consumption keeping profits growing) has been to have a continually inflating debt bubble where consumers, companies, states, cities and federal government continually increase debt levels and keep consumption going with debt.
Illegal immigration is used to boost profits and consumption is kept up with debt to keep profits flowing so illegal immigration is what enables and necessitates the debt bubble.
Nice straw men.
1) A fence
2) The wall as a symbol is immoral. It doesn’t matter if it works or not, the idea is ugly and un-American.
3) A fence
4) Things are fine like they are now… undocumented border crossings are at historically low levels, and the ROI of more border security is highly suspect.
Carl_R, speaking for myself, I joke only about the portion of the wall that Trump demands immediately.
I think we’ve built enough wall over the decades. And assuredly, in the best places.
So I consider any urgent proclamation by King Chaos of a crisis now, as a simple “squirrel” diversionary tactic.
And I expect more as we approach Mueller Time.
When there is a wall on only parts of the border illegal immigrants cross in places where there is NO wall.
Illegal immigrants also cross in places where there is just a low wall easily climbed with ladders.
The only solution is to build a wall on the whole US-Mexico border and make it a high wall with sensors and surveillance.
So, in the two years that the Republicans had power, they must hate Trump too to deny him the wall? You can’t see that the wall is just a dumb political symbol – the wall is a proxy for power – if Trump can get it he owns the Democrats, and vice versa.
If Trump really wanted the wall he’d have closed down the Government in January 2017, not January 2019.
Maybe you have not heard but the wall funding would have required 60 votes in Senate to beat the filibuster and Republicans had 51 votes 2017-2018 and now have 53 votes in 2019-2020.
Of course. But now it requires not only 60 votes in the Senate, but a majority of a Democratic House. Wouldn’t it be more likely if Ryan had passed a wall funding bill attached to the budget, Trump had showed he wanted to sign it, McConnell staged a Senate vote that Schumer blocked and so Trump closed down the Government?
The reason, of course, is that Ann Coulter doesn’t care about the wall, she cares about being the center of attention. Trump had no interest in a shutdown until Ann called him out. We know that because McConnell had a unanimous vote on the funding bill then went home for Christmas, expecting Trump to sign it as agreed. Suddenly Ann and Rush get upset and Trump gives in to them.
Politics aside, what is wrong with building the wall to address a real issue? Carl_R listed 4 good reasons for the wall. What are yours? Nobody cares about your TDS.
It sounds like you agree with me, thermosynaptic, that real issue is political.
Yes – on both sides.
Trump had NO interest in building a wall for 2 years and Trump was also surrounded by Koch Brothers funded stooges like Mike Pence and Mick Mulvaney and Shahira Knight who were telling Trump to sign the horrible Omnibus in early 2018 that had NO wall funding but that gave Democrats everything they wanted.
If Trump had demanded wall funding in that Omnibus Democrats either would have given it to him or Republicans would have kept the house in the 2018 mid-terms.
Ryan was also an obstacle since Ryan is a crazed Ayn-Randian that wants open borders and mass-amnesty and to destroy Social Security and Medicare and all worker protections and wages through mass immigration while putting his kids in elite school with no illegals and surrounding his house with a massive wall.
Ann Coulter seems to be the only one who really wants a wall together with Rush…
Trump was about to cave-in before Coulter and Rush started a mutiny against Trump that was joined by Drudge and Breitbart.
If there is NO wall Trump will be a 1-term president and remembered as the guy who betrayed his voters and Democrats will put Trump in prison after he loses in 2020 on some made-up Russia hysteria…
Oh, and I thought Mexico was meant to pay for it.
So Mexico say no, and we hear nothing.
Paul Ryan says no, and we hear nothing.
Nancy says no, and we have a government closure and claims of a National Emergency.
Give me a break.
The REAL issue: Do you want a Wall?? Do you want immigration limited and controlled?
Do you want borders and America first.
The answer is, you DON’T.
Everything else is just convenient rationalization. Stop pretending.
The real question: who is dumb enough to conflate a Wall with border security, like they’re one and the same?
The fact that people do build tunnels under walls is a surprise to whom? Of course, they do. Yet, it seems equally obvious that less people will come in that way than if the border is totally open. So, because, no matter what we do, someone might still get in, we should just give up and do nothing? A wall is inexpensive, compared to high tech solutions, and a good starting point. Supplement the wall with detection, and you reduce the problem even more. Increase the use of E-Verify, and stop benefits for illegals, and now you have even more control
Then, once you have some control, provide a path to citizenship for those who are working hard, and not committing crimes. All those things go together though. Providing a path to citizenship when you have no control over the border makes no sense at all. That’s not a policy. That’s just totally open borders.
I would add that if too many people get across through a tunnel, the tunnel will be exposed. Tunnels are used for drug trade, not illegal crossings.
Lots of tunnels along the boarder.
It’s hard to imagine that America was created by brave men who risked everything they had. Men like Tom Paine and Patrick Henry. Now we have sniveling cowards who hide under their beds at the thought of some Honduran teenagers coming here to escape gang violence.
Illegal immigrants crossing the border include MS-13 gang members and other gangs, previously deported rapists and other criminals.
Many illegal immigrants commit murder, rape, assault and drunk driving causing deadly crashes once coming to USA since they come from societies where violence is common place.
People who want this kind of illegal immigration to continue by keeping borders open are immoral.
TDS is strong in people like you but I really wonder how you can watch yourselves in the mirror…
A few good tunnel construction workers can trump a wall barrier slat fence peaches wall ANY day!
Locks can be picked so you better leave your home door unlocked and also leave your car door unlocked and the key in the ignition.
My grandfather was a cattle rancher and had and on-going battle with gophers. The holes they dug could cause a cow to break a leg. So my grandfather would pour gasoline down the tunnel, wait a few minutes for the gas to permeate, and then light match. No more gopher. My grandfather never was harmed performing this procedure.
I don’t understand why 40 yards would stop tunneling. They’ve already found tunnels much longer than that. If the rewards are high, they will find a way.
Since you never post any of my logical comments I will tell you what I think of your work. I deeply regret that the TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) has dug a tunnel into your brain and destroyed the contents. Bye, Bye forever. Good riddance to you.
Trump will get a wall plus 3. The walls of a jail cell.
TDS syndrome can be treated. It requires a lobotomy and electroshock treatment. You are a good candidate.
Remember that there are two forms of TDS. One form leads people to believe Trump is evil incarnate, the second form leads them to believe Trump is playing 4D chess and everything he does is genius.
Both forms of TDS render the sufferer incapable of rational thought and continually dumb down political dialogue in the US.
I will take that bet. Trump will never see a prison cell. Tell me exactly how a sitting President is put in prison.
North Korea built invasion tunnels under the DMZ. The first was discovered not long before i was there. North Korea has still not invaded South Korea a second time.
This particular tunnel has been discovered, so it is no longer usable. If this one was discovered, others can be as well.
I came across a story recently about a border rancher in Arizona who invited Pelosi to visit his ranch. Said he would even pay for her plane ticket, so she could see the excuse of a fence bordering Mexico along his property. The rancher wants a more substantial barrier against people crossing the border.
Pelosi said the wall is immoral, yet she has not put forth any legislation to dismantle the existing wall. Obviously, having a wall has value as a deterrent.
Defining a wall’s “success” as a 99-100% reduction in crossings is asinine.
If it were only 50% successful, counting the cost in welfare, crime and loss of future earnings from murder/deaths it would pay for itself and be well worth the investment.
When you’re dealing with living “adversaries,” there’s no “make it 50% and forget it.” The 50% that failed will learn from the 50% that didn’t. Requiring you to constantly keep adding to your fortifications.
It’s just like prescribing a halfway antibiotic treatment. The 50% of bacteria that die, are the least resistant (weakest.) Which frees up resources for the 50% most resistant, allowing those to multiply even further. And so forth and so forth. Until you’re stuck with nasty multi resistant strains.
Halfway fighting “terrorists” work the same way. All you end up doing, is hardening those remaining even further. You may buy a little bit of time, but in the long run all you do is coaching your opponents in how to get stronger.
When you’re dealing with serious diseases, or perhaps hardcore terrorists, the short term gain may well be worth it, since the alternative is often immediate and inevitable death. But precious few US-Mexico border jumpers come with the intent of lacing the strawberries they pick with arsenic, nor burying land mines under the lawns they tend.
What utterly retarded logic. We can’t do anything because those who fail to get in will somehow “harden” those who come after them. We’re talking about Mexicans here, not super villains. These are people who wipe their asses in truck stops and leave the used toilet paper in trash cans or on the floor. Just because you and Shedlock’s demographic want cheap nannies and housekeepers doesn’t mean the rest of us have to put up with the consequences.
His logic seems to be that since some will always be able to get in, we shouldn’t bother trying to keep anyone out. Applying the same logic to my house, no matter how many locks I put on my house, someone might still get in, so I guess I should just leave the doors open, and not lock them at all?
It’s utterly ridiculous. Like debating a child.
If 100 people try to cross and 50 get through, we have 50 illegal aliens. If the 50 that failed try again and 25 get though, we have 75 illegal aliens. If the 25 that failed twice try again … well I hope you get the picture.
eVerify and a CEO perp walk solve this problem for little or no additional cost. How about perp walking the CEO of that golf course who had illegals working there for years?
I don’t understand the point of any of this. Does anyone believe there is any way to stop 100% of illegal immigration? Name a crime – any crime – that is prevented 100%. So will a wall help? Almost certainly but what do you think, Mish?
No doubt, employment laws and laws regarding free handouts need to change. But your habit of posting “I’m not giving an opinion but I’m kinda sorta implying something” are getting old. Either make an intelligent point or don’t bother to post about it.
He’s clearly rooting for him to fail.
Histrionic headlines like “Powell Now a Fully-Trained Puppy Happy to Please Master Market” read like Mish is a Junior High girlfriend that Jerome Powell jilted.
Maybe. But I think he’s just stirring the pot and wasting everyone’s time.
“Does anyone believe there is any way to stop 100% of illegal immigration?”
Of course it is. Heed Peter Tosh and legalize it 🙂
Agreed. Mish uses click bait headlines and then claims they are not his positions when criticized.
A lot of this could be avoided if all of America enforced the laws uniformly…but with all sorts of sanctuary unwritten rules this is all a moot point…
Tunnels are for contraband, not immigration. They are expensive, and if used for immigration, they would be releasing witnesses into the wild on the US side.
They found a tunnel that was almost impossible to find…that is good news.
Here’s another sort of wall that ultimately didn’t work either:
What Were Those Weird Metal Things on the Beaches During the Normandy Invasion?
February 1, 2019 Karl Smallwood Leave a comment
Joshua T. asks: What were all those metal things you see on the beaches in pictures of the Omaha landing?
The Normandy Invasions represented one of the single largest military maneuvers in history. Beginning on June 6, 1944, D-Day (see, What does the “D” in D-Day stand for?), the invasion was the largest amphibious assault of all time and involved what basically amounted to the collective might of a large percentage of the nations in the industrialized world working in tandem to defeat the Nazi war machine. One of the most iconic images of the invasion was that of a French beach covered in oppressive-looking metal crosses. As it turns out, those crosses were merely a small part of an expansive network of sophisticated defences the Allies managed to somehow circumvent in mere hours.
Dubbed “the Atlantic Wall” and constructed under the direct orders of Adolf Hitler himself in his Directive 40, the formidable defences stretched and astounding 2000 miles of the European coast. Intended to ward off an Allied invasion, the Atlantic Wall consisted of endless batteries of guns, an estimated five million mines (of both the sea and land variety) and many thousands of soldiers who occupied heavily fortified bunkers and fortresses along its length.
….
And this is relevant because… you think that the migrants are going assemble the manpower and equipment to mass a D-Day style invasion of Texas?
40 feet won’t do squat. Or at least not much more than squat. I Gaza Israel has been widening their no-mans land at regular intervals ever since the wall was first built. Now it sits at a kilometer or more. And that’s with a guard density noone would want to pay for along the US-Mexico border (Hamasians come across specifically to blow themselves up on crowded buses. Mexicans come to move your lawn……). And a much greater tolerance for shooting anything that moves. In Korea, the border is 5 miles or more…
The physical Berlin Wall was narrower. But East Germany had guard towers almost on top of each other. And, their guards were on the source side of the border. Where they are much better able to pick up on buildups to jumping attempts, than if they were on the destination side. Along the rest of the Soviet border, militarized no mans lands were often 10 miles or more. The wider the strip, and the more remote and physically difficult to get to the location, the lower the density of guards you can get away with.
In areas with regular human activity on both sides of the border, a breach; as in the time elapsed from someone emerges as a likely border jumper, out of the background noise of day to day activity, on the source side, until he disappears into the noise on the destination side, is so short with only a 40 foot no man’s land, that guards have to be right there when it happens. Everywhere along the whole border. Which noone is willing to pay for, when border jumpers don’t particularly threaten to do anything more than help some farmer pick a few strawberries.
I suggest e-verify and legalized drugs, then Federal mandate for drug testing for any company doing business with the Federal government, with rehab and firing on second offense for anything stronger than pot. We’ve killed over 200,000 Mexicans fighting over our drug market. We’re ruining Mexico and Latin America. Every doper is hiring killers and wrecking lives. Enjoy. There’s a reason they’re on the road coming here.
By definition – this is not Trump’s Wall since it has yet to be built.
This is, however, the wall Biden, Hillary, Pelosi and Schumer voted for in the 90s and 00s.
Before they were morally against walls.
Why wait? Let’s start the carpet bombing of Mexico and Central America.
“One suggested mines.”
Also a good way to keep kids off the lawn.