What I Saw At The Border The Day Biden Let Trump’s Wall Construction Die In The Desert

Here is an excerpt from “Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History“The Bombardier Books publication of “The Todd Bensman” was released last month.

Biden had set Jan. 27, 2021 as his work-freeze date. It was a Wednesday. After the November election contractors worked 24 hours a day to construct as much wall before the inauguration. It was literally a race against time.

To witness construction’s end that fateful morning I took a truck rental and drove to El Paso, Texas. It was only half a mile from the Mexican border. New Mexico is a mere mile away. It was beautiful but barren high desert scrubbrush country. The contrast between the blue sky and enormous brown views was striking. This stretch of border was a favorite because of its numerous escarpments, and the burgeoning hills. They were evocative images from Mars’ exploration rovers, which I have always loved.

Driving west along the 9 gave me a view of the brown brick wall that was always visible to the left. It was simple: I would drive to the point where it stopped, then report what was going on there. To meet Border Patrol agents from the region before it was built and to hear their perspectives on what the future holds, I wanted to do so.

As I listened to the arguments of wall opponents over the years, I came to appreciate Border Patrol agents. They are the best experts in border security, especially the walls. It is them who work along the walls for 40 hours per week, mixing with immigrants, smugglers and drinking intelligence reporting.

The wall continued westward, until it came to an abrupt end. A widened road was visible that ran past the last panel. It then went uphill and back. Turning due south, I took a left alongside the towering panels. It was about 75 miles to the west of El Paso and 30 miles from Columbus, a small historic New Mexican village. It was the scene of an unsuccessful 1915 invasion by Pancho Villa, a Mexican revolutionary and guerrilla. This incident marked the last time that an armed foreign army entered the United States and massacred American citizens. Pancho Villa’s raiders were driven away by American cavalry soldiers armed with machine guns from the belt.

A Anticlimactic Final

Over the next few hundred yards I saw giant yellow bulldozers and cranes lined up in the opposite direction. I stopped at the final sputtering wall panel that had been put up just the day before. After getting out of my car, I stretched and then walked over to the wall. The day before, a trench measuring 20 feet by seven feet was excavated. Here workers were going to pour concrete and set up the next panel. The wall replaced an older 1990s-era vehicle barrier which ran along the hill. It was easy to hop back and forth across it, making sure not to slip in the trench.

Trump’s border wall death, which was one of America’s greatest political scandals, felt completely anticlimactic.

Certain, equipment and workers were evacuated. The evacuation of equipment and workers was underway, sure. There weren’t any security guards or public affairs officers. The next day and week were devoid of news stories. Without a cleanup plan, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of equipment and panels would remain unclaimed.

No one from either party of the partisan split cared enough about the event to hold a press conference or mark it. This would have allowed reporters to ask questions such as: “What’s the government doing with these thousands of steel panels that were paid for and stacked in the desert?” My presence was the only one who noticed, as I was surrounded by heavy machinery, open trenches, sharp-edged stacks with rebar, and other gawkers. My right was a huge scraped area where work crews were busy amongst giant CAT machine, heaps of wall panels, steel bollards, unspecified gear, and porta-potties. For videography, I wandered among the panels and perched atop of a stack. 

They seemed a bit desultory and depressed to me, which is not surprising considering they have lost high-paying positions. A driver might occasionally jump aboard one of these CAT earth-movers, and start the engine. These machines would beep at regular intervals and trundle along the walls on heavy, tank-like treads. They creaked slowly eastwards until they disappeared from view. It was a poignant scene that I remember from a children’s story or movie. I watched a trench digger shrink into the distance, ignoring the wall it had helped to build.

Smugglers Avoid Walls

Ironically, no one of the workers that I wanted to interview spoke English. They were uncomfortable talking about sensitive topics with a stranger who carries a notebook. A man called me to inform me that I tried to interview him. I stayed to see if he would be interested in being interviewed. Nobody bothered.

Finally, the Border Patrol agent came up to the last panel and stopped. I walked up to the window and had a quick chat with him. He was not happy with the stoppage of construction. Biden and Harris were not happy about the construction stoppage.

One argument that wall don’t work was that they are ineffective at stopping illegal immigration or drug trafficking. Taxpayer money shouldn’t be spent on them. However, this agent as well as many others who worked at the wall told me the exact same incontrovertible facts about the impact it has on pedestrians. 

Smugglers and illegal immigrants avoid areas with walls, and instead go where there is none.

There wouldn’t be any gaps and most people would not bother. According to the agent, the intention was for this wall section to be constructed westward and connect with an eastward segment, similar to the transcontinental railway, probably without the golden spike ceremony.

Between the wall end walls, a 1.5-mile open area of ranchland remained. He would have to patrol this gap now because of the work stoppage. Agent said that he would prefer the gap to be shorter. Here, there are still miles of desert crevices and hills with dales. This is enough land to allow one or two agents patrol.

“What do you think about these experts who say walls are but a useless folly?” I was curious.

“You hear TV, and they would say, ‘Well the experts say the wall isn’t effective,’ and I never understood who these experts were,” The agent replied. “Because all of our data says, you know, 90 percent effective rate … dropping of crossings … increased apprehensions and all of that. And it’s like, well who are these experts to say it wasn’t effective and what are they basing that on? You know, they never really specify.”

“Yeah, well what about the ladders, cutting tools, and rope-climbing they say entirely neutralize wall effectiveness?” I was curious.

This strategy, he explained, would only enable the most physically fit and strongest Olympians to scale this wall at 30-feet high. Previously, 60-80 immigrants could simply climb the vehicle barrier to their chests. It’s an important difference for Border Patrol.

“That was always a fallacy, that ‘well, they can dig under … they can climb over, or even have those gliders that come over,’ and it’s like, yeaaahhh nothing’s 100 percent,” He said. “It [a wall] was always something we wanted. It was always something we wanted more of. Every administration gave it to us. It was always proven effective.”

The last sentence was right. Since the middle of the 1990s, President Clinton’s Operation Gatekeeper saw 135 miles constructed as a pedestrian border wall. These were mainly located in El Paso or San Diego. Secure Fence Act of 2006 was signed by President George W. Bush, and approved by former-Sens. Obama and Biden provided approximately 700 miles of vehicle barriers and fencing. About 278 miles of 15- to 18-foot foot pedestrian walls and another 249 of easily defeated barriers were completed. “vehicle barriers” These were the same type of wall that Trump’s 30 foot wall replaced.

Obama added 128 miles to the wall. True, drug traffickers and human smugglers can beat walls. This is especially true in areas with a small Border Patrol or agents who were sent to South Texas by the Biden administration to process the families they had admitted. However, this agent claimed that Olympian drug-smugglers would only be a fraction of the many migrants who could cross over the border if there wasn’t a wall. According to him, the wall has allowed Border Patrol agents plenty of time to track down fewer drug smugglers and require less effort. 

‘Let Them Lug a 45-Foot Ladder Out Here’

Later in the day, as I sat in a car park at the border crossing point to Palomas, Mexico, across from Columbus and asked another Border Patrol agent questions about the construction stop.

“As much as people like to let their gums flap about things they don’t know about … a wall is a great deterrent,” He said. “That whole tall-wall-taller-ladder thing? Hahaha, fine, let them lug a 45-foot ladder out there in the middle of the desert. It’s a deterrent. A lot of people have no interest in risking their lives to climb that high or lug a band-saw and cutting tools out to the middle of nowhere.”

He told me that I knew I wouldn’t climb 30 feet up a stooping ladder. Unless, of course, it was a risk worth taking if I made a lot of money from selling drugs.

Liberal media still love to sing that some people take this risk. Their numbers, relative to other countries, are very small. Statistica published In April 2022, University of California at San Diego doctors in JAMA Surgery reported that there were 375 injuries from falling since the barrier was raised at the California border in 2019. This includes 16 deaths. 

Video on social media “athletic young men” Breezily moving up, and grasping the bollards as fire poles to slide down the other side. An April 2022 Washington Post article. reportedMuch later, they pointed out the reason these athletes make up a very small percentage of elite athletes.

“But that type of skilled maneuver is beyond the abilities of many migrants…” 

The majority of people are heading towards places where there’s no wall. This compares to the more than 350,000 Border Patrol arrests made in California in 2019 after Trump’s wall was built. 

Be mindful of your gaps 

Construction freeze on Jan. 27, 2021 left many gaps, some only a few feet wide, and others miles across.

A helicopter tour by the Texas Department of Public Safety of South Texas’ wall revealed miles of walling that looked like a shark jaw. These missing teeth didn’t attract just a few hundred young Olympiads. They also attracted many others, including those who fell from heights or broke their legs. They took in hundreds of thousands illegal immigrants and drug traffickers. 

This gap was so significant that Border Patrol sometimes had to give up and surrender, and is unable to process many of them. This spot, which was at Yuma’s Arizona border with Mexico, became famous. “the Yuma Gap.” Between January 2021 and July 2022 more than 374 000 immigrants passed through the three-panel area. 

The Biden administration allowed this torrent to flow for almost a year and a quarter, refusing any mention or visits. This was despite the furious protests of Republican Arizona legislators and law enforcement officials. The incredible drama of the Yuma gap closing was ignored by most national media. However, the Biden government finally declared in July 2022. Eventually.

The delay caused by the delays led to Arizona Governor. Doug Ducey used old shipping containers to pack them in tight spaces at the dam. It worked, and I can attest to its effectiveness. With Oscar, a Mexican journalist from Mexico, I traveled to the Mexican side in November 2022. “El Blue” Ramirez, to check on the situation. As we walked gingerly through the four-inch of water at the dam’s bottom, toward several hundred yards in front of us, it was clear that no one else was there.

A single Border Patrol agent stood at the embankment, 50 yards in front of him. He had plenty of time to spend. He shouted out that I was American and a writer. His reply was that it wasn’t very busy any longer. He threatened me with arrest for improper return beyond an official port or entry. The crime carries a $5,000 fine.

We hiked back up to Oscar’s Jeep, when two Mexican officers were standing by, declaring that the Border Patrol agent had called to have us removed. This was a testimony to the ability of Border Patrol to effectively turn away human traffic even when it isn’t overwhelming them.

Todd Bensman (Texas-based, senior national security fellow for Center for Immigration Studies), a Washington D.C.-based research center, is also a writer fellow for Middle East Forum. His book is available here. “Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History,” In February, Bombardier Books will be published. For nearly a decade, Bensman led counterterrorism-related intelligence efforts for the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division. Follow BensmanTodd @BensmanTodd.