Borders walls are only as good as the people who staff them. In the following story, it is unclear exactly why the gates were open on the Guatemala side of the Guatemala/Mexico border.
Fox News However, not to hard to see given the vast expanse of the border and existing examples of corruption and the money involved that those sparsely populated stretches of border might provide new corruption opportunities.
Another recent story of a pattern that seems to be emerging. A large group of asylum seekers crossing a relatively open part of border, spotted via other means (camera) and then turning themselves into border agents.
Some might argue that this is an example of why such remote areas might also need more walls. However, it isn’t quite so simple. As the article explains, the dynamic has changed – these aren’t individual mostly Mexican males crossing for seasonal work.
Instead this group is Central American, mostly family groups seeking to enter the asylum process. While they are crossing the border illegally, they aren’t trying too hard to evade border patrol – and instead giving themselves up for processing. Add more border wall in this particular section and other places will be used for similar efforts.
Also as the article points out, the total number of apprehensions has dramatically declined in the last decade.
Another recent story tells us since October, some 25 groups of more than 100 migrants have crossed at the remote entry point of Antelope Wells
Las Cruces Sun-News The President recently cited an example of San Antonio as support for a border wall.
“Everybody knows that walls work. You look at different places they put up a wall, no problem. You look at San Antonio,” Trump said. “You look at so many different places. They go from one of the most unsafe cities in the country to one of the safest cities, immediately, immediately.”
KSAT There are a few problems here, including:
Where were the unsafest cities in Texas last year?
There is really no correlation with border areas and crime and McAllen, Laredo, Brownsville and El Paso all generally tout their relatively low crime rates.
When FBI data was analyzed in 2017 for the nationwide list in 2017, there were five Texas cities that made the list (Odessa, Balch Springs, Houston, Lubbock, Beamont) none of which is along the border.
I have seen it suggested that perhaps Trump intended to refer to El Paso as a city that went from a higher crime rate to lower – as the same example has been used in other occasions. One difficulty with that is in 2005 (a year before the Secure Fence act of 2006), El Paso was ranked as 2nd safest city over 500,000.
An article from the Washington Post tells us
Also here was a story from the El Paso Times
Build a wall in sandy soil and people with shovels can burrow underneath. In this case they gave themselves up for asylum shortly after crossing.
What good is a wall if it is only temporary or for show?
Remember those images of troops stringing up razor wire just before the election? Apparently it has been taken down again in Laredo and Hildago.
As one recalls, it was a visible message of having troops at the border. These troops were deployed just a week or two before the 2018 midterms.
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Military Times While it may have served public relations purposes, locals pretty quickly branded it as ineffective and dangerous in other ways.
Not long after they had the chance, the brought it down and their congressman also sent out the note above.
A story today about a tunnel found near San Diego.
A story about what happens when a border wall prototype was tested with a steel saw.
The figured being suggested for border wall funding are large.
Corruption has been found in some of the past border wall building efforts.
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The Texas Tribune Some have gone so far as to question whether Trump or Trump cronys might personally profit.
Salon Certainly an area to keep an eye out, even among some of the recent companies involved with border wall prototypes.
Another drug tunnel was recently found near Nogales.
El Paso Times 
Intelligencer 
Project On Government Oversight 
azcentral