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Sometimes the simplest solution is not the best. Sometimes different jobs require different tools. Sometimes every problem is not a nail; nor every solution a huge hammer.
[...]
"To be honest, it’s not a wall,” [John] Kelly told The Los Angeles Times.
“The president still says ‘wall’— oftentimes frankly he’ll say ‘barrier’ or ‘fencing,’ now he’s tended toward steel slats," Kelly added. "But we left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration, when we asked people what they needed and where they needed it."
Kelly, who will leave the administration in the coming days after a contentious tenure, said Customs and Border Protection Agents told him during his brief stint as Homeland Security secretary that they need physical barriers in some areas, but largely indicated a desire for new technology and additional personnel.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Kelly did not directly answer when asked whether Trump had ginned up fear over illegal immigration for political reasons, such as when he repeatedly warned of a caravan of migrants in the weeks before the midterm elections.
thehill.com— Dec 30, 2018
Sometimes the GOP funding demands are little more than unused “slush funds” by another name.
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) in an interview Sunday knocked President Trump’s proposed border wall, saying that Democrats will not spend money on “fourth century strategy” as a partial government shutdown stretches into its second day.
[...]
“It’s not about border security, Jon [Karl]. He's sitting on over $1 billion, 94 percent of what we sent him last year for border security he hasn't bothered to spend. If you're not going to spend nine out of 10 dollars on an issue, you obviously don't care about it that much. This is politics, not policy.”
Merkley also said Democrats are “absolutely willing to fund border security.”
“The American people want us to spend money in a smart way, $5 billion is a lot of money. That's 650,000 children attending Head Start. It's 2 million meals a day for a year ... for seniors. And to spend it on a fourth century strategy rather than on stuff that actually improves border security is something we're just not going to do.”
[...]
thehill.com— Dec 23, 2018
If we were smart, we would be funding 21st century solutions, instead of the 4th century solutions, which rarely ever worked as intended.
That’s why they got left behind in the 4th century. Put up a wall, and people go around it. Or under it. Or over it.
[...] We have access to existing sensor technology that can determine the difference between a jack rabbit and a human moving across the desert. We have drones that can track individuals anywhere on the planet. But when it comes to the border, we’ve allowed an outdated, physical barrier to dominate the national dialogue and stifle innovation.
A one-size-fits-all approach will not solve our complex border problems. While a physical barrier can be effective in urban areas, each sector of the border faces unique geographical, cultural and technological challenges that would be best addressed with a flexible, sector-by-sector approach that empowers the Border Patrol agents on the ground with the resources they need.
Of the 650 miles of existing border fencing, hundreds of miles are in need of repair because criminal organizations have cut through, dug under or plowed over it repeatedly. The drug cartels are using more modern technology than we are to breach our border, so why would we double down on an outdated tool?
What we need is a "Smart Wall" to solve our 21st century border problems. A Smart Wall would use sensor, radar and surveillance technologies to detect and track incursions across our border so we can deploy efficiently our most important resource, the men and women of Border Patrol, to perform the most difficult task — interdiction. Most of this process can be done with computer vision, artificial intelligence and machine-learning, allowing our Border Patrol agents to focus exclusively on stopping individuals and contraband from crossing our border illegally.
[...]
William Hurd, former CIA agent —Aug. 7, 2017
This is what a “Smart Wall” looks like:
Now if only we had some SMART people who could explain it to the “Moat-diggers”— from the time of yore. Put away your shovels, and pick up a tech manual, eh?
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