A wall is ineffective…
…except maybe when it is effective?
On July 29, 2022, the Whitehouse Press Liar…errr….Spin Doctor….ummm…Diversity Hire….uhhh….Whitehouse Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, was asked by Fox News’ Peter Doocy about the Biden administration putting effort into the border wall in Arizona. Jean-Pierre multiple times stated that they are “not finishing the wall.” When pressed, Ms. Jean-Pierre made the following statements:
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I’m answering your question. A border wall is ineffective use of taxpayer dollars. So, it’s ineffective of taxpayer dollars — dollars that actually went to the military that the last administration, the prior President, took from the military, which took away from schools, which took away from military bases. That’s what that money that he pulled away from to build this wall that he wanted — that is ineffective, by the way, which I just said.
Just recently, CBP reported that new bollard fencing along the southwest border was breached 3,272 times between fiscal year of 2019 and 2021, requiring $2.6 million in repairs. It’s ineffective. We are not finishing a wall; we are cleaning up the mess that the last administration made.
Claiming walls are ineffective is nothing new for Democrats. Karine, however, did something interesting - she cited a statistic, and an interesting one at that. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), said the Press Secretary, the border wall was breached 3,272 times over a period of three fiscal years, and this, my friends, proves just how ineffective the wall is.
Each fiscal year, CBP releases their operational statistics. For the fiscal year of 2021 alone, the CBP recorded 1.72 million border encounters:
Overall, in FY 2021, there were 1.72 million CBP encounters that resulted in either expulsion under the CDC’s Title 42 public health authority or processing as Title 8 immigration enforcement cases (“enforcement encounters”). The Department completed 1.2 million repatriations, including expulsions under Title 42 and removals under Title 8, which represents a 15-year high that is more than two-and-a-half times as many repatriations as in FY 2020. Most people encountered at the border (62 percent) were expelled under the Title 42 authority to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
At a rate of 1.72 million encounters, averaging 1,091 breaches per year (3,272/3) in the wall equates to approximately 0.065% of those encounters, which means that, 99.93% of illegal border crossings are happening where there is no wall. How many billions of dollars would be saved by reducing these illegal crossings altogether? That $2.6 million figure would pale in comparison. It seems that the wall may be a lot more effective than the Whitehouse suggests. Or is it?
If we accept the administration’s assertions that walls are ineffective, perhaps we would ask why they have not removed the fence from around the Whitehouse grounds. Does it somehow enhance the aesthetics of the Whitehouse grounds? Perhaps it keeps the President’s dog from getting out and biting people. Oh wait…the Whitehouse just recently got a taller, stronger fence, to stop intruders. Why are they wasting tax money if this is ineffective?
https://www.voanews.com/a/usa_all-about-america_white-house-gets-taller-tougher-fence-stop-intruders/6108369.html
Well, our legislators are safe at the Capitol though, right? Here is an image that most will likely recall.
When Congress felt threatened, they did not just increase security personnel around the Peoples’ House (recall, they called in the National Guard)…they also built a fence! And surprisingly (or not), that fence, after coming down, returned before the President’s State of the Union Address just this past February.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-capitol-fence-state-of-the-union/
But why? If walls are ineffective, why waste the time and money to put a fence around the building in which the two houses of the legislature perform their duties? Could it be that, maybe they think a fence might increase the safety of those inside?
Of course they do. If walls and fences were ineffective, we wouldn’t waste time and money installing them around prisons. If walls were ineffective, Berlin wouldn’t have remained divided from 1965 through 1989 (I bet the people who lived in East Berlin at the time would tell you walls are effective).
That there were breaches in the border wall, numbering only a few thousand over a period of three fiscal years is evidence that the border wall makes it more difficult for immigrants to cross into the United States illegally in places where the wall exists. During the prior administration, with the building of the wall, illegal immigration had decreased significantly. In addition, having a wall means needing fewer personnel to monitor for and deal with border breaches, which in the long run, costs the tax payers less.
No barrier is impenetrable; that doesn't mean such barriers are ineffective. That all those who claim walls are ineffective seek security behind them both at work and at home reveals the blatant hypocrisy of their lies.