Leaving little to the imagination, recent Hollywood movies portray the gritty and dangerous badlands along America’s southern border.
“Mercury Plains,” “Hollow Point” and “Frontera” graphically depict drug trafficking, human smuggling and wanton violence spilling into unguarded stretches from Texas to California.
Amid the carnage, filmmakers – and the rest of the media – manage to minimize or even romanticize the sordid realities of border life. From their gated compounds and offices, the chattering classes dismiss President Trump’s plan for a border wall, throwing every conceivable logistical, fiscal and political objection in its way.
But without a wall, sprawling swaths of U.S. territory are besieged while property values shrivel and communities suffer.
Bob Maupin knows.
On horseback, he patrols a 1 1/4-mile stretch of his 250-acre ranch outside tiny Boulevard, Calif., which abuts Mexico. He regularly runs off migrants who cut a flimsy wire fence at the border to run through his property.
Though the 77-year-old Maupin has dodged the depredations of the movies, his land is violated on a daily basis – making it essentially unmarketable.
“If Donald Trump put up a wall, [illegal migrants]could not cut through,” Maupin told Realtor.com.
In Texas, where violent crime has surged in unfenced border counties, property appraisers say a wall would spin up a virtuous cycle. Safer land is more valuable land, they note, and rising property values lay the groundwork for economic development. The legal kind.
Conversely, no one feels safe or prosperous with declining tax rolls.
A private property appraiser in Brownsville, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the border needs an impervious wall that fills in the gaps.
“It’s not safe now. A real wall could increase the value of land,” he said.
Barely 700 miles of the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border have any type of fence.
The cross-border threat from Mexico is real and multifaceted. Nearly half of all criminal cases filed by federal prosecutors have been concentrated in a handful of districts along the southern border, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report.
As for random violence? Workers for the city of McAllen, Texas, which draws its water from the Rio Grande, had to start carrying handguns after they came under fire when operating pumps along the river.
“It’s like a bad neighborhood,” McAllen’s water district director sighs. Or a real-life horror movie.
7 Comments
5
Cutting my fences on my border property would = my putting up legal warning signs in the Spanish language that say “keep out or be shot!” Manténgase fuera o ser fusilado! Border Patrol would be ordering more body bags! Another sign campaign would read “cross here and die!”, in Spanish, – ¡Cruce aquí y muera! -with the skull and crossbones in brilliant florescent night visible paint. America is a soverign nation and American Citizens have every right to defend their country and property. America is not responsible for the well being of poor people from other countries.
Just to bring a fact for thought:
We became a power without a wall. We invited these workers to stay here. Nothing is new: bad people always existed but through the years the Constitution was no revised properly n Wars led our a way of life due to oil n outside politics. We used to represent freedom n thanks to NATO n us, there has been Peace since WWII. The world appears to turn like in the 50s again w incompetent leaders n people’ afraid of change n the future….
Like always history repeats itself ….
But responsible for allowing to take advantage of those poor people..
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/the-lessons-of-9-11-we-were-and-still-are-unserious?f=must_reads
The Lessons of 9-11–We Were–And Still Are–Unserious
“Unless and until we get serious and reform our immigration system, we will not significantly lessen future terror attacks in this country. That is one of the lessons of the attacks of 9-11. The other is we are apparently repeating history as it is obvious we were also not serious about stopping terrorism before 9-11.”
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/government-and-politics/20160919/more-than-800-immigrants-mistakenly-granted-citizenship
More than 800 immigrants mistakenly granted citizenship
“The U.S. government has mistakenly granted citizenship to at least 858 immigrants from countries of concern to national security or with high rates of immigration fraud who had pending deportation orders, according to an internal Homeland Security audit released Monday.”
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/government-and-politics/20161101/more-migrants-from-around-the-world-making-way-to-us-border
More migrants from around the world making way to US border
“WASHINGTON >> An increasing number of people from far-flung corners of the world quietly have tried to sneak into the United States among the hundreds of thousands of other, mostly Latin American migrants caught at the Mexican border in the last year, according to arrest data from the Homeland Security Department.”
Your comment holds water on 911 n immigration. Immigration reform yes but remember those guys came here legally…..so it has nothing to do w immigration but surveillance n proactiveness…
Got that right!!