You're either a citizen or you're not

[TGRR]

Originally Posted by BrianR

Phooey!

Screw the wall. Dredge out the Rio Grande, extend it to the Pacific and make it a navigable canal like the Panama Canal. Let Mexico be a half partner on the construction, maintenance and operation and we'll have thousands of jobs on both sides of the border, going on forever. And a natural barrier to illegals coming across the river, which as it stands now, can be crossed without getting one's knees wet.

I like my idea better than the wall, which will be tunneled under before it's even finished.

Problem: The entire budget would get sucked through Mexico City in bribes alone. You think Washington is corrupt? Ho ho!

[classicman]

Originally Posted by TGRR

Perhaps you missed reality, you know, where neither major party nor their owners has any interest in doing anything of the kind.

The fact that neither party is in favor of it has no bearing.

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Yes there are a zillion Mexicans coming in illegally, that are just poor starving people that are willing to work hard to support themselves and their families back home, blah blah blah.

Good - get stations built to process the paperwork and get them in legally.

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

BUT, if you are a Mexican criminal running from the police, or the army, where can you be safe? USA.
If you are a Mexican criminal looking for money, as most criminals are, where's the money? USA.
If you are a Mexican smuggler, where are you going to smuggle to? USA.

HUGE BUT!

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

If we don't know who's coming in, how do we ferret out the criminal element, which is significant and increasingly violent?

That is exactly why we NEED to control this border.

[TGRR]

Originally Posted by classicman

The fact that neither party is in favor of it has no bearing.

Well, except when it comes to, you know, reality.

[lumberjim]

if we built a wall that was 50 ft thick, and 400 feet high, that went down 75 ft below the surface, and we cleared the land 2000 feet on both sides of it, except for the outposts on the US side and a big freaking gate every 100 miles or so.....

think big.....make a point out of it.

[TGRR]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

if we built a wall that was 50 ft thick, and 400 feet high, that went down 75 ft below the surface, and we cleared the land 2000 feet on both sides of it, except for the outposts on the US side and a big freaking gate every 100 miles or so.....

think big.....make a point out of it.

1952 miles long = 10,306,560 feet

10,306,560 * 475 * 50 = 244,780, 800, 000 cubic feet of concrete.

= 81,593,600,000 yd^3 at 4050 LB/yd^3 = 330,454,080,000,000 pounds, or 165,227,040,000 tons of concrete. Plus rebar.

Got 165.2 billion tons of concrete kicking around?

[classicman]

That'll be A LOT of work won't it? Good place to start.

[Yznhymr]

Originally Posted by TGRR

1952 miles long = 10,306,560 feet

10,306,560 * 475 * 50 = 244,780, 800, 000 cubic feet of concrete.

= 81,593,600,000 yd^3 at 4050 LB/yd^3 = 330,454,080,000,000 pounds, or 165,227,040,000 tons of concrete. Plus rebar.

Got 165.2 billion tons of concrete kicking around?

Nah, but we have lots of left over cold war nukes. Bomb the hell out of the scrub brush and turn the soil to a radioactive wasteland that no one will be able to cross until another brillant plan can be hatched.

Or as far as I am concerned, let all of the people crossing just pay a "toll" with Mexican Hash and I'll guarantee they can cross along my property line.

[TGRR]

Originally Posted by Yznhymr

Nah, but we have lots of left over cold war nukes. Bomb the hell out of the scrub brush and turn the soil to a radioactive wasteland that no one will be able to cross until another brillant plan can be hatched.

Screw that. The friggin' wind down here goes South to North.

The delegates from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California are not amused.

[TGRR]

Originally Posted by classicman

That'll be A LOT of work won't it? Good place to start.

It would also require about a century's worth of concrete at maximum possible output, not allowing for any concrete for anything else...and don't get me started on the rebar.

So, you can spend a hundred years building your wall, while everything else falls apart.

[classicman]

Oh please start on the rebar. I wanna know how many steel plants/mills we'd have to get going to do this.
It'll never happen - we both know that, but goddamn we gotta get some kind of control over this shit.

[TGRR]

Originally Posted by classicman

Oh please start on the rebar. I wanna know how many steel plants/mills we'd have to get going to do this.
It'll never happen - we both know that, but goddamn we gotta get some kind of control over this shit.

Penalize the employers. If there's no jobs, there's no reason to immigrate (outside of CA for free bennies, I mean, but they're all nuts in CA anyway).

Fine the employers til their eyes bleed, including agriculture. The problem will ease up soon enough.

[lumberjim]

we could make it out of adobe!

[TGRR]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

we could make it out of adobe!

WE COULD MAKE IT OUT OF MOONBEAMS AND PIXIE DUST!

[lumberjim]

you have a lot of that stuff down there?

[TGRR]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

you have a lot of that stuff down there?

We're positively gagging on the stuff.