President Donald Trump has long been touting his efforts to build a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border.
In September, Trump, joined by top Homeland Security officials, visited California’s border with America’s neighbor to the south, where he called the 18- to 30-foot barriers “an amazing project” and “virtually impenetrable.”
“This wall, you won’t be able to touch it. You can fry an egg on that wall — it’s very very hot,” Trump told reporters in Otay Mesa, in the San Diego sector of the U.S.-Mexico border. “So if they’re going to climb it, they need to bring hoses and water and I don’t know where they’re going to hook it up. There’s not a lot of water out here.”
Uh, not so much. It turns out ambitious border crashers are getting through using saws that cost as little as $100, The Washington Post reports:
Smuggling gangs in Mexico have repeatedly sawed through new sections of President Trump’s border wall in recent months by using commercially available power tools, opening gaps large enough for people and drug loads to pass through, according to U.S. agents and officials with knowledge of the damage.
The breaches have been made using a popular cordless household tool known as a reciprocating saw that retails at hardware stores for as little as $100. When fitted with specialized blades, the saws can slice through one of the barrier’s steel-and-concrete bollards in a matter of minutes, according to the agents, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the barrier-defeating techniques.
After cutting through the base of a single bollard, smugglers can push the steel out of the way, allowing an adult to fit through the gap. Because the bollards are so tall — and are attached only to a panel at the very top — their length makes them easier to push aside once they have been cut and are left dangling, according to engineers consulted by The Washington Post.
One senior administration official, though, said the breaches were just “a few instances” and claimed the barriers had “significantly increased security and deterrence.” The Post also noted that some of the damage to the barriers occurred on sections that do not yet have electronic sensors that alert border officials that someone is trying to breach the barriers.
On his visit to the San Diego-area border, Trump showed off a section of the 30-foot-tall bollard barrier that U.S. officials are building.
“Look at the inner tube to see what happens, because after the wall is up, we pour concrete and concrete goes into the tube, and in addition to that we have rebar,” Trump told reporters.
“So if you think you’re going to cut it with a blowtorch, that doesn’t work because you hit concrete,” he added, “and if you think you’re going to go through the concrete, that doesn’t work because we have very powerful rebar inside.”
“When the wall is built, it will be virtually impossible to come over illegally, and then we’re able to take border control and put them at points of entry,” Trump said.
But he didn’t say anything about just cutting through it with a $100 saw.