Sunday, February 16, 2020

Smugglers are reportedly helping migrants scale sections of Donald Trump’s multi-billion border wall using $5 ladders.

US Border Patrol has seen a rise in camouflage “hook-and-ladders” within the far south-west region of Texas since May last year, according to The El Paso Times.


El Paso’s urban stretch of border is said to be littered with the ladders, which are engineered out of rebar and match the rust brown colours of the wall.

“Somebody is making money off those ladders,” agent Joe Romero told the newspaper. “The agents pulled it off the wall and cut it up so it can’t be used again.”

The redbar ladders began appearing in large numbers once construction of a replacement wall in El Paso was finished last May. According to Border Patrol, illegal crossings have increased ever since.

Migrants clash with authorities as they seek to cross the US border
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“We’re starting to see a lot of evading activity,” said Agent Ramiro Cordero. “We’re starting to see the criminal organisations working hand-to-hand on either side to avoid detection. More and more we are seeing ‘failure to yields’ — they are utilising ladders to go over the fence and diversionary tactics.”

Border Patrol apprehensions of single adults — those most likely to use the ladder method — have nearly doubled in the El Paso sector.

From October 2019 through January 2020, Border Patrol apprehended 10,030 adults, compared with 5,150 in the same period a year ago.

The ladders appear to be made by hand from two poles of 3/8-inch rebar and four thinner poles, fitted with steps and bent over at the end in a ‘U’ shape to hook on the top of the wall.


The El Paso Times reports smugglers could be sourcing the rebar from a local hardware store in Ciudad Juarez, a Mexican city just south of El Paso, where six metres of the material costs roughly $5.30 (£4).

To date, almost 100 miles of border have been built under the Trump administration, mostly to replace and improve existing barriers.

Mr Trump’s campaign promised that Mexico would pay for the wall, but thus far the almost $10bn (£7.7bn) budget has come from taxpayer money.

The president has proposed spending an additional $2bn for border wall construction.

A total 450 miles of the barrier is expected to be completed by the end of this year.


Trump set to divert billions more to border wall from military budget


President hoping to make progress on signature campaign promise ahead of election in November
Donald Trump is expected to divert billions of dollars more to building the border wall that he repeatedly claimed would be paid for by Mexico.

While his 2021 budget proposals, to be unveiled this week, will request $2 billion for the anti-immigration barrier, less than in previous years, the homeland security department could take billions more from the Pentagon, according to reports.

CNN also reported a senior defence official saying a major announcement on the wall would be made this week.

A "big, beautiful" wall was one of the centerpieces of Mr Trump's 2016 campaign, one which he repeatedly promised would be paid for by Mexico – which has flatly refused to do so.

Congress is responsbile for government spending but the president's priorities will be seen as politically significant ahead of his reelection bid in November.

As well as money for the border wall, he is expected to propose up to $4.6 billion in spending cuts over the next 10 years, much of it from programmes like Medicaid, disability insurance and food stamps.

Government data seen by the Washington Post suggested the Trump administration was a long way from completing the 500 miles of new barriers the president had promised would be in place by 2021.

Most of what has been built is considered to be replacement fencing because building new sections of wall often requires the acquisition of private land.

Homeland security officials have said they will have 450 miles either finished or under construction by the end of 2020.

Last year the president took $2.5 billion from the military budget's anti-drug programme for the wall.

This year that figure could be much higher, with the Washington Post claiming as much as $7.2 billion could be diverted from the Pentagon help build the wall.

The controversial barrier has suffered a series of embarrassments, with videos showing people easily scaling the new sections and part of it being blown over in high winds last month.

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