This is a badly needed section. I talked to someone today from the area, right now there is not only no fence of any kind but there is thick brush all along the river there and it is easy for smugglers and other illegal activity to hide and enter at will. It is like the wild west there and they have corrupt local officials and scared people who live there. The people living there are truly scared and deal with cartel retaliation big time. The person I talked to said this segment is vital and will push the illegal traffic to an area that is easier to watch and catch illegal traffic.
That area will of course need more fence as soon as possible, but the person I talked to said this is a blessing and will make a huge difference.
“This is a badly needed section... there is thick brush all along the river... It is like the wild west there”
The Rio Grande Valley and Laredo are the Wild West part of the border. The terrain is super tough to police because of the vegetation, and the cartels there are hyper violent - the kind of thing we think of for ISIS, like mass beheadings and sadistic torture.
Narcos drive around with machine guns openly mounted in pickup trucks. In Nuevo Laredo gunfights can be heard almost daily. It got so bad for a while that the Government disbanded the police force there entirely, and the only Government security presence were occasional large military patrols, like a wartime occupation.