This is a report by Univision about the status of the border fence and whether Biden will stop the construction The was broadcast on New Years Eve and is subtitled in English. Ironically, English-language news outlets mostly ignore what’s happening on at the border. It seems that leftist, Democratic congressmen are also more open with a Spanish-language news organization.
A total of 450 miles of bollard fence on the border is being finished as this report was made. The only thing that Biden can stop is the secondary construction, such as road-building, border lights and sensors. It seems doubtful that any of this will be stopped when Biden takes office, much less the border fence torn down.
Congressman Cuellar told the reporter that the funds allocated to building the fence should be transferred to obtain technology and other resources for border security. However, the fence will be finished by the time that Biden takes office and funds for other technology and resources, such border lights, sensor networks and roads are already in the contracts. Work is already on-going to provide these other features to support border security.
Four miles of 30-foot steel bollard fence have been finished in Tecate, California. Previously there was mostly landing mat fence here 8-10 feet high and a couple of small sections of low bollard fence that was built probably around 2008. Landing matt fence was originally intended only to stop vehicles, not to stop persons crossing on foot.
View towards the east.
The fence runs towards Mt Celli in the east an older, it is joined up with and older, pre-Trump, bollard fence which already existed on the hill.
This vehicle belongs to Marines assisting the Border Patrol directly on the Border. My understanding is that they watch for illegal crossers and call the Border to apprehend them. They use the van to transport detainees. The back area of the van has been modified to transport prisoners. I did not take their photos, because they did not want to be photographed. Armed U.S Marines guarding the border.
In past administrations they would talk about sending troops to the border, but they would not be armed and not directly on the border. These Marines are armed with loaded weapons and they are directly on the border. There are probably hundreds of them deployed in this way along the entire border.
The next photo shows the transition from the “Trump Wall” to the “Bush Fence”. The pre-existing bollard fence on the right was most likely built in the last couple of years of the Bush administration or the very early years of the Obama administration, before Obama cut it off. On the left is the “Trump Wall”. In this area, the older Bush bollard fence is about 15 feet tall and the new Trump fence is about 26 feet tall. It depends on how deep the foundation is and they may have reason to plant the bollards deeper here, such as to discourage shallow tunnels under the fence.
Transition from Trump Wall (left) to Bush Fence (right).
The Border Patrol has been calling this a “fence” for about 15 years or longer. There were a couple hundred miles of this bollard fence on the border, before Trump. They have long experience with it and this is the design they wanted to continue with the new construction. It is much to Trump’s credit that he gave them what they wanted. It is not the Border Patrol’s fault that the earlier fence was often dilapidated junk. It was the fault of past administrations, who did not support border security adequately.
This photo shows a section of the older Obama fence in the foreground and the new Trump fence in the back ground. Some of it was there before Obama’s term in office, but I call it the Obama fence, because he was legally obligated to build a secure border fence by the Secure Fence Act of 2006. Obama did not attempt to do it so he owns the previous fence.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Even the concertina wire was added during the Trump administration. Earlier, there was only the vehicle barrier in this area made out of sections of pipes wielded together. A person could just walk across in this area to the east of Mount Celli. In the middle of Tecate, it was the landing matt fence, which us only slightly better.
This next image is from the Mexican side, made in 2016, before the new fence was built. It shows this section of the border just east of Mt. Celli before the new fence was built. There was a couple hundred yards of old 15-foot bollard fence going across Mt. Celli. Down below in the dry wash there was nothing except the rail fence with not even any concertina wire. Why would anyone build a bollard fence on the hill when it was much easier to walk across in the dry wash below? There are many more areas like this in Campo to the east.
Dry wash to the east of Mt. Celli (made in 2016) before the new fence. Anyone could walk across here in 2016.
This image shows one of the crews a little further to the east of Tecate working to finish the Campo section of the border fence. There are reportedly several contractors working on the Campo section in order to have it finished by the end of this year.
Crew working on the Campo section east of Tecate
On the west side of Tecate the fence extends partway up the side of Tecate Peak. The last few hundred yards is a Bush-era, 15-foot-high, bollard fence. Try clicking on the photo and expanding it to find the vehicle of the Border Patrolmen hiding behind a large boulder to the right of the end of the fence, waiting for illegals to cross.
There are no plans as far as I am aware to extend the fence further across Tecate Peak. On the other side, of the Tecate Peak, between it and Otay Mountain, are about 6 miles that are completely open, much of it along the Tijuana river. There is no border barrier at all there. It is going to be the most open part of the California border, after this new fence is totally completed. I am not sure why they are not building there. It could be, because the Tijuana river criss-rosses the border several times in that area. It may be an engineering challenge to build a fence in that area that would withstand flash floods in the riverbed, which are not uncommon.
Next is a video that I made when the work on the new border fence started in this area in the late summer of 2019.
This video by a Mexican reporter for “California Medios” is from 2016. I reused it and subtitled it in English. It shows how easy it was to cross in the middle of Tijuana and the conditions in this area are discussed, such as the kidnapping and extortion of illegal crossers by criminals. It also indicates how the local police feel about it. The reporter says that it takes less than 5 minutes, but in this case the actual crossing of the old border fence took only about 20 seconds for the three of them to cross, one of them very much overweight.
Searching for news about the Devil’s caravan, I came across this article about protesters burning Trump in effigy at the border while demanding the return of the “lost territories”. At least, these protesters are telling the truth for a change about what illegal immigration is really about. Ironically, this occurred at “Friendship Park” or right next to it on the beach.
By the way the Devil’s Caravan never amounted to much as a mass caravan. There are still small groups of fake refugees sneaking across the southern border of Mexico separately, though, and heading north to our border.
Burning Trump in effigy at Friendship ParkTrump effigy engulfed in flames at Friendship Park
The signs below read from left to right:
“Rise Mexican, Let us reclaim the territories that they robbed from us.
“Trump, Half the territory of the US is ours.”
“Trump, Let the Mexicans enter the US to work in the territories that you robbed from us in 1848.”
“Trump, We are not paying for your wall.”
The signs that the protesters are holding also have similar statements on them about the return of the territories that have been robbed from them.
They protest in Tijuana against the anti-immigrant policies of the US president.
About 50 people protested this Sunday in Tijuana, on the border wall that divides this city in Baja California from San Diego in the US, over the anti-immigrant policies of the administration of President Donald Trump and burned a piñata of him in effigy.
‘Trump, let Mexicans enter the United States to work in the territories that they robbed from us in 1848,’ said a banner placed on the dividing wall, referring to the treaty by which Mexico ceded almost half of its territory to the United States, after a war between the two countries.
A migrant climbed the fence that divides the two countries and placed a Mexican flag while another held a sign that said ‘Trump, we will not pay for your wall.’
Protesters burned a Donald Trump piñata in effigy because of the way in which the US president expresses himself regarding Mexicans, said the president of the migrant organization Ángeles Sin Fronteras (Angles without Borders), Sergio Tamai.
During his first presidential campaign, Trump said Mexican immigrants were ‘rapists’ who bring ‘drugs’ and ‘crime’ to the United States.
‘One proof of that lie is that of the Mexicans who are in the United States, last year they sent us more than 35 billion dollars,’ Tamai said, referring to the remittance flows sent by Mexicans working in the United States. .
‘What would become of Mexico if it weren’t for those remittances?’, said the activist. ‘It is the irrefutable proof that those who cross are working people, they are not criminals and if they were, they would not send us so many millions of dollars.’
Tamai demanded that the Mexican government rethink the USMCA trade agreement (between the two countries and Canada) because the immigration situation was not discussed with respect to legalizing those already living in the United States.
‘We were reminding Trump that Mexican labor is what made the United States what it is,’ said Lourdes Lizardi, representative of the Tijuana Migrant Alliance.
Migration has been a vital issue between Mexico and the United States since Trump launched the presidency and threatened to place a wall between the two countries paid by Mexicans.
Jesse and I went to Friendship Park on the evening of Novmember 15, 2018, where the Caravan demonstrations have been taking place. There we ran into a member of the Oceanside Pascoli gang and his family. They were enraged that I was carrying an American flag and wearing a USA cap.
You can understand why this guy is frustrated, he said he’s a chief in the Pascoli gang in Oceanside and was probably looking forward to getting new gang member recruits from this caravan. Part of the reason Tijuanans are turning against the caravan, is they know most of them are likely to end up being stuck in Tijuana and they think it will add to their already terrible crime problem. There are still many Haitian refugees in Tijuana from two years ago.
This photo added to serve as a thumbnail for Facebook posts.
