Update on the Crowd-Funded Border Wall in New Mexico
A fight with a federal water treaty agency reaching critical mass as wall builders lean in for expansion
The access road that construction workers ironically dubbed "Deplorable Way". Photo by Todd Bensman
SUNLAND PARK, New Mexico – Depending on who’s talking, the half-mile long, 25-foot-high steel wall that seemed to go up suddenly on a mountainside here after Memorial Day is either an affront to proper democratic process and bureaucracy, or a magnificent edifice to a vast, unrequited patriotic will to protect America from the plagues of Mexican cartels and illegal immigration.
One doubtless reality is that the first and only crowd-funded border wall ever built – by a private group known as "We Build the Wall" in under a week at a cost of $8 million of at least $20 million in individual donations given online last December – is going nowhere in any hurry. It's towering 18-foot-high, concrete-filled, 100-year steel bollards are sunk seven-feet deep in underground concrete up the side of a privately owned mountain. The army of construction workers wore red, white, and blue hard-hats during 24-hour shifts and cheered their accomplishment before the dust settled. The 20-foot-wide cement road alongside the wall was dubbed "Deplorable Way" for the obvious political irony.
Notably, that motivated army of true believers still stands at the ready, and the fleet of massive earth-moving mining machines used on the original half-mile project remains gassed up and on site…also ready. For what, exactly?
The wall is being built where the borders of Mexico, New Mexico and Texas meet.
The partial answer, We Build the Wall operatives told me recently during a visit, is for much more wall construction as private money continues to flow in amid furtive negotiations with public and private landowners not only in West Texas but in New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
Heavy equipment on standby at the site, which We Build the Wall organizers proudly point out is all American made. Photo by Todd Bensman
"This is the first privately constructed border wall on the national border in U.S. history. That in and of itself is an amazing accomplishment, and it's not going to be the last," said Kris Kobach, a founding organizer, sitting board member and conservative Republican candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in Kansas. "We are gearing up on project numbers two and three."
What the We Build the Wall people wrought with their half-mile fence, aside from the claim that it cut off some 20 cartel smuggling pathways through a notorious gap in older federal fencing through this region, is a hard symbolic proof of concept. This has motivated American donors and workers, believing they know what is right for the nation, to defeat Washington's swamp, stalemate, and obstructionist "open-borders left" and show they can build a wall better, faster, and cheaper than can the federal government.
None of this is going away any time soon. Expect an odd mix of secrecy and noisy self-promotion.
On the immediate horizon is a "Symposium at the Wall" this Thursday through Saturday in Sunland Park at which a long succession of politically conservative notables will speak about cartels, trafficking and asylum. A senior White House official is expected to attend, unannounced so far, as will former senior Trump advisor Steve Bannon, who has been involved in the project since the beginning.
A Necessary Quietude?
Most workers feel a need to be armed so close to Mexican cartel operatives, as this empty holster on the floorboard of a vehicle attests.
To much criticism, We Build The Wall activists accomplished their initial wall portion under a cloak of secrecy, swiftly enacting unwrapped construction plans on a holiday weekend and unveiling a finished product to the world's press, city officials and federal agencies as a fait accompli. They’ve been accused of deception, bullying, bending building codes, etc.; the owner of the former brick factory land where it stands adjoining the Mexican border, Geroge Cudahy, was accused of building without a proper permit.
But Mr. Kobach and his cohorts are all defiantly unapologetic. He said operational secrecy was, and still is, necessary to preempt the almost certain lawfare and bureaucratic obstructionism that has bedeviled President Donald Trump's most ambitious wall-construction plans, and that quietude also short-circuited extremist political activists, who would engage in civil disobedience and illegal sabotage.
Secrecy won't be easily repeated now that leftist wall enemies in both government and civilian society are on the alert, he conceded. That's why Mr. Kobach and other group leaders aren't talking much about what's next. Why make obstruction easy?
"We will similarly begin building without announcing beforehand where we will begin building or when,: he said. "There are a lot of people on the left who are unhappy."
Leaning In With American Pocketbook Support But Also Disputes, Controversy
A significant segment of the American population responded late last year in ways that indisputably indicate its sentiment: with cold hard cash. In just the month of December 2018, when a privately-funded wall was merely a whiff of an idea, some 500,000 Americans still reportedly poured $20 million into the initial campaign. Sympathizers are still showing love for the private wall idea; money continues to roll in, Mr. Kobach said, though not at the initial heady rate. Donors get to have their names engraved into bricks, panels, and individual steel bollards, depending on the generosity level of the donation.
That means there is plenty of money behind the effort to keep this endeavor going for a long time to come.
But make no mistake, controversy is going to dog the private wall builders, even though they've taken on legal brainpower as well. They can bring political power to bear if necessary, and they have a social media machine that has proven effective in getting them over hurdles, such as when the local town's officials tried to block construction and relented after a torrent of public online outcry.
One heated dispute that may require creativity beyond social media involves a land dispute between We Build The Wall and the International Boundaries and Water Commission (IBWC).
Foreman Mike Furey (wearing yellow) and a worker measure the disputed gate for an unknown purpose related to the dispute. Photo by Todd Bensman
The IBWC is a little-known bilateral entity that oversees water- and land-related treaty obligations between the United States and Mexico. It controls access to dams along the Rio Grande, roadways, and gates of various kinds from San Diego to Brownsville. Cartel contraband smugglers have been known to use these roads and access points to move drugs and people too. But since the private wall went up, a tiny 320-square foot slice of land has come to be seen as the one critical chink in the armor.
The problem is the IBWC says the private wall builders extended their wall right across its road access to a dam on the Rio Grande and the road to the spillway side, where Mexicans fish, swim—and smuggle. On the 320 square feet, the wall people, in their rush to erect the structure before anyone really noticed, took the liberty of building a huge steel-bollard gate. They want the gate closed and locked because it shuts off that one last opening from smugglers, who instead of taking the easy levee road would be forced to circumvent the wall by climbing over Mount Cristo Rey, a formidable mountain.
Conversely, the IBWC has claimed sovereignty over the road and says it needs it kept open for various reasons, including an ability to rescue Mexicans who might be drowning and for maintenance. At one point, IBWC officials cut the lock on the gate and opened it, enraging the wall people.
Mike Furey, known as "Foreman Mike", explained that the gate must remain shut because keeping it open negates the wall's fundamental effectiveness and becomes an escape hatch for smugglers.
At present, a tentative but unsatisfying détente has been reached whereby the IBWC allows it to be open during the day but locked at night. Border Patrol agents often have to be stationed there by day as a result. That;s not good enough, though.
"We want it closed. We want it closed for good; otherwise the (smuggling paths on the Mexican side) are not effective," Mr. Furey said. "Why is a United States governmental agency trying to keep it open when the American people want it closed? It's got to be closed. It's got to be locked. All the time."
He and others are growing increasingly frustrated and talk of unspecified measures to get their way.
"One way or another, it's going to be closed," Mr Furey said. "It’s going to locked, for good."
Mr. Kobach was a bit more diplomatic, blaming one "mid-level bureaucrat" for the trouble. President Trump, who appointed the entity's U.S. Commissioner, has yet to get overtly involved.
"We expect that we will eventually prevail in this dispute," Kobach said. "We anticipate getting the gate closed in a much more effective manner." Asked how, he added, without elaboration, that "we will keep all options on the table."
IBWC Public Affairs officer Lori Kuczmanski did not return several Center for Immigration Studies requests to discuss the dispute.
Smuggling paths blocked
The group of migrants "Forman Mike" helped apprehend
The private wall people insist the structure has blocked a heavily trammeled smuggling byway through the El Paso area. They base this claim on extensive conversations with area Border Patrol and law enforcement long familiar with the area and also on personal, often videotaped observations of smuggling activities before and during construction.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson would not comment.
"We normally don't put out information about trends in specific areas like that," said Agent Fidel O. Baca of the El Paso Sector's Strategic Communications Branch.
Some Border Patrol agents privately agreed that the wall cut deeply into a smuggling route and made life more difficult for the cartels.
Mr. Furey, for instance, said 21 different smuggling paths were cut at the wall. Where it ends, three-quarters of the way up Mount Cristo Rey for another two miles down the other side, remain open terrain that obviously a busy trafficking corridor. Driving me on a tour of this open section, Mr. Furey spotted a family of Guatemalan migrants walking along a railroad track.
He pulled over and rolled the passenger side window down. In Spanish, he told them all to wait for Border Patrol, whom he had already called on his cell phone. That's a call Mr. Furey has had to make many times.
A few minutes later, Border Patrol pulled up and took custody of the migrants.
Proof, he told me, of the need to close these gaps.
Follow Todd Bensman on Twitter @BensmanTodd
"In 2016, according to my analysis of the data, more Americans were reported killed by homicide in Mexico than the combined total of Americans killed by homicide in every other country abroad." MONICA SHOWALTER
Mexico cynically wades into El Paso shooting debacle, brimming with hypocrisy
As if the El Paso mass murder couldn't be a more noxious showcase for political bad behavior, in wades the Mexican government, launching lawsuits against the U.S. for supposedly failing to protect its citizens, which is something they've never bothered about before. According to NBC News:
Mexico on Sunday threatened to take legal action against the United States for failing to protect its citizens after this weekend's mass shooting in the border city of El Paso.Of the 20 people gunned down at a Walmart at the Cielo Vista Mall, at least seven were Mexican citizens, and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard promised Mexico City will act.In a statement, the Foreign Ministry called the attack in El Paso a "terrorist act against innocent Mexicans."
Apparently, they've seen how their individual illegals can exploit loopholes in U.S. law to their advantage, and now that bastion of peace and tranquility to our south would like a serving of the same. Instead of warning Mexican potential illegals to stay out of the U.S. the way a normal country would do, they want to muscle the U.S. legal system to their benefit, creating a sort of right to protection in the U.S. which is something Mexicans certainly don't have back home.
And more to the point, the Mexican state would like to blame the U.S. for the action of the lone freak who shot up the Wal-Mart in El Paso, same as the average Democratic politician. The fact that the freak is going to the executioner's table is irrelevant, because what they're really after is putting the U.S. and President Trump in particular on trial.
According to a summary of their doings from Axios:
Mexico threatened legal action Sunday against the U.S. for failing to protect its citizens after a shooting in the border city of El Paso, Texas, killed 20 people, including 6 Mexican nationals, the New York Times reports.Details: Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said the Mexican government was looking into extraditing the suspect to Mexico on a terrorism charge over Saturday's shooting, per CNN. Mexico also plans legal action against the seller who provided the weapon used in the attack, according to the NYT.
On those grounds, any American who's attacked, assaulted, drinks poisoned liquor, or is killed in Mexico, should have grounds to do the same. Failure to protect, don't you know. Such irony. Turns out more Americans (75 of them) have been killed in Mexico than all the remaining countries of the worldcombined. Here's what Forbes reported last year:
In 2016, according to my analysis of the data, more Americans were reported killed by homicide in Mexico than the combined total of Americans killed by homicide in every other country abroad.More than 31 million Americans visited Mexico in 2016, the National Travel & Tourism Office says, and State Department data shows there were reports of 75 American homicide victims there. In comparison, 49 million Americans traveled to all other foreign countries, and 69 were reported killed by homicide.
That's quite some hypocrisy they've got, given the number of American dead bodies they've got on their record. Think they'll go along with reciprocity? Not the Mexican government we know. The double standard stands.
But that's hardly their only hypocrisy. Here's another logic joke from them:
They encourage their nationals to emigrate illegally (remember the Mexican government comic books? Apparently, they're still distributing them) to get rid of potential discontents, and now they complain when the place, loaded as it is with unvetted migrants they don't want around, is somehow not safe? Any city loaded with illegals is a den of crime -- just look at the crime in Chicago, Baltimore or any sanctuary city. Apparently, those killings are O.K. by the Mexicans so long as they are done by other Mexicans or maybe Central Americans. But this Dallas-area white interloper doing the killing is something different, something sue-worthy? They've tolerated crime for years on both sides of the border, not doing a thing so long as the distilled remittances keep coming. Now at this late date, with this lone freak, they are suddenly upset.
Now for a third hypocrisy: They say they want to extradite the maggot? What the heck would that be for? Like El Chapo Guzman, he'd be in a fine position to continue his Internet postings in a Mexican prison because all kinds of contraband is tolerated in Mexican prisons, particularly cell phones, and anything can be bribed for. For that matter, he'd be in a great position to escape, much as Guzman did from Mexican prisons, more than once. The creep, under Mexican law, would also be spared the death penalty, something he's not going to be spared if he stays in Texas. It looks like this extradition move is some sort of revolting bid to save him and allow him to flourish. You can bet he'd be a happy camper if somehow he got extradited to Mexico. Sorry amigos: The maggot is going to pay.
What we are seeing here is plain old garden variety Mexican meddling in our internal affairs, this time rooted in some icky festering wounded national pride, some bid from Mexico to assert itself over U.S. laws in the wake of Trump's muscle on Mexico over the illegal migrant surge, using the U.S. courts with their continuous anti-Trump rulings to make itself the sovereign here. Mexico has already sent their illegals and now they want to take over gubernatorially through the courts, which puts this act on a continuum.
This garbage should be smacked down for the hypocrisy it is and as fast as possible. We don't need their government ruling over here and we sure as heck shouldn't be paying them.
THE NARCOMEX INVASION OF AMERICA…. By invitation of the Democrat Party
HOW MANY HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS WILL WE LET MEXICO SUCK OUT OF OUR OPEN BORDER?
There are many reasons why, for the first time, the government of Mexico would agree to work cooperatively with the United States over an extremely serious immigration-related issue. It is likely, of course that President Trump was not just posturing when he said he would cut off aid to Mexico and other countries who permit the United States to be invaded by illegal aliens.
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Under Guzman’s leadership, the Sinaloa Cartel became the largest drug trafficking organization in the world with influence in every major U.S. city.
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The allegations against Pena Nieto are not new. In 2016, Breitbart News reported on an investigation by Mexican journalists which revealed how Juarez Cartel operators funneled money into the 2012 presidential campaign. The investigation was carried out by Mexican award-winning journalist Carmen Aristegui and her team….The subsequent scandal became known as “Monexgate” for the cash cards that were given out during Peña Nieto’s campaign. The allegations against Pena Nieto went largely unreported by U.S. news outlets.
Mexico Plans To Take Legal Action Against The U.S. As A Result Of El Paso Shooting
Source: AP Photo/Moises Castillo
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard on Sunday vowed to take legal action against the United States after at least three Mexican nationals were killed during Saturday's shooting at an El Paso Walmart. Of the 26 that were injured, at least nine were Mexican nationals, NBC reported.
According to Ebrard, the shooting was an “act of barbarism,” but the United States failed to protect Mexican citizens.
“The president has instructed me to ensure that Mexico’s indignation translates into ... efficient, prompt, expeditious and forceful legal actions for Mexico to take a role and demand that conditions are established that protect ... Mexicans in the United States,” Ebrard said in a Twitter video.
In his alleged manifesto, 21-year-old Patrick Wood Cruisus said he was carrying out of his attack because of the illegal immigration invasion that threatens our nation. El Paso is predominantly Hispanic or Latino.
The gunman is currently booked in El Paso County Jail, although it's unclear whether or not he will receive a bond. He faces capital murder charges and the El Paso County District Attorney, Jaime Esparza has vowed to seek the death penalty against the shooter.
As of now, federal authorities are considering bringing hate crime charges against Cruisus as well.
“We are treating it as a domestic terrorism case, and we’re going to do what we do to terrorists in this country,” John F. Bash, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, told the Washington Post. “Which is deliver swift and certain justice.”
Three Mexican Nationals Killed in El Paso Shooting, President AMLO Confirms
2:42
Officials identified three Mexican citizens as part of the twenty victims killed during a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, the president of that country confirmed.
In a video message, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador revealed three of his citizens are among the fatal victims of the El Paso Walmart mass shooting. Lopez Obrador (AMLO) said that he instructed the Mexican consul in El Paso to take the necessary measures to assist the relatives of the fatal victims and to provide any attention needed to any injured citizens of his country.
“My condolences to the U.S. citizens who lost their lives, to the Mexicans who lost their lives. It is a very lamentable event,” AMLO said. “I am very sorry for this event. This is a product of the breakdown of problems that some individuals have, it is not a simple issue.”
AMLO said the case was surprising in nature since El Paso is known as a city with a low rate of violent crime. At the end of his video message, he sent his condolences to the citizens of the U.S. and assured that the citizens of his country would be receiving all the necessary attention from his foreign relations ministry.
On Saturday morning, a 21-year-old gunman walked into a Walmart store in El Paso and began shooting at innocent victims, Breitbart Texas reported. Initially, authorities had reported 18 fatal shooting victims, however by Saturday evening that number has escalated to 20. Authorities had at first reported that there were multiple shooters and also mentioned that the case was tied to “gang-related terrorism.” However, they later walked back both statements. Currently, authorities are referring to an alleged manifesto drafted by the shooter as a “potential nexus to a hate crime.”
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Three journalists slain in Mexico in a week
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