It’ll Never Be Built, Eh? Border Wall Prototypes Coming This Summer

It’s going to be satisfying as hell to see the Trump Wall be built. Yes, for the obvious reason that it’s something that this country has needed for decades – a barrier to at least make it POSSIBLE for U.S. Border Patrol to start limiting the number of illegal immigrants who flow here from Mexico every year. But also for a secondary reason: It’s going to be the biggest middle finger imaginable to the legions of critics and naysayers on the left who still believe that it will never happen.

We’ll concede: It’s not going to be easy to get Congress on board for the full financing of the wall, even though there are already funds allocated for some preliminary fencing enhancements. And we’ll concede that “getting Mexico to pay for it” may be challenging as well, although there are several mechanisms the Trump administration can use to deliver on that infamous promise.

But where there’s a will there’s a way, and where there’s a way there’s a wall. And don’t look now, but Customs and Border Protection is signaling that contractors are expected to submit their initial prototypes for the wall by the end of the summer. Donald Trump’s biggest and most historically significant construction project is in the initial stages. This wall is going to happen.

From Fox News:

Ronald Vitiello, Customs and Border Protection’s acting deputy commissioner, said Tuesday that four to eight companies will get contracts for prototypes in San Diego that could be models for the roughly 2,000-mile border. Companies will have 30 days to complete the models.

Vitiello says it’s impractical to build a wall on about 130 miles of border where there are already natural barriers, like lakes or canyons.

Trump’s budget proposal for 2018 includes $1.6 billion for 74 miles of wall in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley and San Diego. There are currently 654 miles of fencing.

At the end of the day, will THE WALL be the grandiose, ocean-to-Gulf monstrosity that Trump alluded to on the campaign trail? Probably not. But his supporters understand that politicians go overboard in their campaign rhetoric, and that goes double for the New York billionaire, who has more than a little bit of old-school carny in his blood. That’s all beside the point. The real point is to get SOMETHING done, even if it simply means drawing more federal resources and attention to a problem that has been ignored for far, far too long. Don’t forget: If Hillary Clinton had been elected, we would be careening full-bore towards a future where border security would practically be forgotten entirely. Trump delivered us from that dystopian version of the future, merely through talk. For that, the American people should be eternally grateful.