A roadrunner stops at the border wall. Photo © Alejandro Prieto - BBC Science Focus Magazine
Alejandro Prieto was named Bird Photographer of
the Year by the BBC Science Focus Magazine for this photo of a roadrunner,
which cannot fly, contemplating a fence bristling with razor wire along the
U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona. As the BBC pointed out, “The 3,000 km-long
border traverses a range of habitats and this image, the competition’s overall
winner, illustrates how a wall along it can disrupt the behavior of local
nomadic species.”
https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/road-runner-stopped-by-trumps-border-wall-wins-bird-photographer-of-the-year
The effects of “The Wall” on human nomads have been less disruptive. Although the symbolism is hostile, most immigrants and smugglers haven’t had too much trouble getting over, under, through or around Donald Trump’s border barrier. Despite whipping his followers into a frenzy of “Build the Wall” chants at his rallies, he was only able to twist Congress’s arm to appropriate some $5 billion for it, while grabbing $10 billion from existing Defense Department funds. By the end of his presidency, his administration had built 453 miles of metal border fencing, rather than the imposing masonry wall he promised. But 406 of those miles were replacements or secondary barriers for an already existing fence. So U.S. Customs and Border Protection calculates that, in total, Trump added only 47 miles of new primary fencing to a nearly 2,000 mile border. Even Wile E. Coyote would not be impressed.
Perhaps the best indicator of The Wall’s real significance was one of the pardons granted in the twilight of Trump’s tenure. His flamboyantly white nationalist advisor, Steve Bannon, had been arrested for wire fraud and money laundering for helping himself to over a million dollars from the cookie jar of We Build the Wall, a private effort that raised more than $25 million from some of Trump’s wealthy and gullible backers to continue building the Wall when government funding ran out. Take a moment to ponder that: Bannon is accused of absconding with the generosity of some of Trump’s most devoted bankrollers destined to amp up the loudest of his applause lines. Yet the former president, in his infinite mercy, found it in his heart to forgive the naughty ex-Breitbart mogul. Many of Trump’s pardons went to guilty former associates who refrained from ratting him out, so perhaps it expressed his gratitude for the omertà of his consigliere - which begs the question of what Bannon knows about the ex-president that might be of interest to prosecutors. Or perhaps it was simply a token of the admiration of one master con man for another. Hate the grift, love the grifter.