“let’s just build a fence!”
if we put up a chain link fence it would be $32,000 a mile for the fence. Posts, rails, concertina would probably double that number. So $64k a mile. Even a nice round figure of $100,000 a mile would be reasonable to use for estimating purposes.
now, there’s 2000 miles of border- but of course a lot of it IS fenced, in towns and areas where there’s border crossings, so let’s assume 1500 miles. That’s $150 million to put up the fence. Do that three times, with ten feet between the fences, and you got $450 million. And wingnuthead is planning to spend two billion to basically do nothing, but look like he has accomplished something.
$450 million dollars seems like a lot of money, but it’s chump change to some. Teams of volunteers could do this- I bet ten guys could put up a mile of 12′ fence in a week. Two guys drilling holes, two guys setting posts, two guys capping and railing, two guys stretching chain, two guys hanging concertina. With the right power tools it’s a cakewalk. That’s 1500 miles times ten guys; I have no doubt there’s fifteen thousand men in this country that would like to see the borders more secure.
of course it would be declared vandalism and we would be arrested. We’d have to get some people that would be a huge embarrassment to the administration to arrest- some union members who want to keep their jobs, some celebrities (hello, mr Rowe?) some women and children. Anyone got ideas for sponsors? Anyone want to do this? This seems like the kind of thing that would bring publicity to the situation and make some headlines.