Quote:If I were a rancher on the border I'd be happy if the US government prevented thousands of illegal aliens from stomping through my fields.



Very few man hours. Computers sort through the data and mark anomalies. It would take maybe six people (two per shift) to check the anomalies and sort the real tunnels from the false positives.



That has to be carried to the wall, meaning you'd need a truck, and a driver to take it back since it couldn't be carried over the wall. You'd need a means of transportation on the US side, or you'd have a long walk carrying whatever supplies you'd need to get to a safe hideout. Right now the same truck carries illegals the whole way. And this assumes that the drone doesn't spot you before you get to the hideout. That's a lot of risk for someone to take.



Even assuming Mexico doesn't pay for it, $10 billion is a drop in the federal bucket. It would be a one-time expense. Heck, the Department of Energy wastes more than that every single year. It would be worth it if it only kept half the invaders from entering the US, since illegals cost $4.8 billion each year just in uncompensated medical costs. The drone scans would probably add another $10 billion up front, plus less than $1 billion annually. Defending the border from foreign invasion is a valid DOD ($600B annually) task.


As far as which company gets the contract, I don't care if it's "Trump Construction" or "Joe's Discount Wall Builders" as long as gets done well, on time, and within budget. That's my opinion on any project the government starts under any president. Given that it's a US government project, I'm sure that no matter who they hire it will end up shoddy, taking twice the time, and twice the original budget (see my link on the F-35 above).




Discouraging illegals by economic means was the Obama strategy. Destroy the economy so the Mexicans won't want to come here; at least not the productive workers looking for jobs. The criminals and those looking for handouts still came over these last eight years.

You are delusional.


Most people buy private property to not have pipelines run through it or drones flying over it. Nice to know you're cool with Big Brother doing whatever it wants on your property.


Your amateurish take on how people get across our border illegally is as ridiculous as your comments on how tens of billions of dollars are just a "drop in the federal bucket". All for a solution that won't work.


You think it's just computers and a few man hours to locate and destroy tunnels? The cartels applaud your naivete. And you don't care that Trump would likely use government dollars to line the pockets of his cronies (you probably didn't care when the last Republican president did the same thing either) fo a flawed solution to a problem tens of billions of dollars won't fix.

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