Was going to PM you yesterday as to what your thoughts were on the absence of update on CBP website. Showing 194. Bet this visit is it. 200 + miles for certain. Would think it a good idea to completely seal off Cal border with Mexico by Labor Day. President T could then announce that one State is now totally Walled off from Mexico.
“completely seal off Cal border with Mexico by Labor Day”
I had expected to see 200-201 on the report we missed (Mon, 1 June). We have been running 6-7 miles per week.
In reality, we would likely be around 206-208 by the coming Monday report (8 Jun).
Since they stood up the new web page (https://www.cbp.gov/border-security/along-us-borders/border-wall-system), the reporting now seems to be screened to be in harmony with the President’s recent public statements, rather than a blindly mechanical report. They added the footnote “approximate and rounded as construction activities are ongoing”, when they made the change. When the President does not make any public statement (or have a commemoration event), they seem to fall back in on the current total.
I thought they skipped the report, because it was all hands on deck for the rioting, but now I think it was so that the 200 mile mark could be commemorated by the President (which itself may likely have been postponed due to the rioting).
Mountains are daunting for Wall System Construction (which includes road building). When you get over a certain degree of slope, the roads have to go to switchbacks. Getting heavy machinery in for barrier construction, without an adjacent road, and on steep slopes, is seriously life-threatening.
We just started to nibble at the first of the steep terrain in recent months, in Arizona, and a bit in California (Eastern edge of San Diego around Otay Mesa, and the Western edge of the Jacumba Wilderness - running barrier and road into the Mountains from both sides).
In between Otay Mesa and the Jacumba Wilderness, there is 50-60 miles of mostly mountain. I’d assumed that there are some particularly tough spots (potential showstoppers) in that mix as well.
I think it would just be physically too hard to do before Labor day. I also think it is unlikely to get completely done, unless the President is re-elected, and there is a demonstrated operational need (which there may not be for some parts.
On the CBP web page (above), they depict some gaps in the planned California Wall System, meaning that they are not part of the currently funded program (although most of the hilly/mountainous areas are).
There are significant advances in technology and tactics for detection and tracking in the mountains, and there is investment occurring in acquiring that technology. So even if illegal traffic is diverted into those rugged parts (much will be deterred by the terrain), the new tech will make those stretches more secure.