Trump wants a border wall. Texas may want a smarter alternative
Marcos Rios spent 10 hours on a cold Monday in February waiting for the start of Donald J. Trump's rally in El Paso, Texas. Holding a fluorescent green handwritten sign with the words "Trump Por Vida" -- or "Trump for Life" -- Rios was there to see the man in person and hear his plans for a border wall. He voted for the 45th president in 2016 and will again in 2020.
Even so, he doesn't get Trump's wall.
"It might deter some people, but it's not going to work," says Rios, a 59-year-old school bus driver from El Paso. "They already have tunnels. If you wanna come here, you're gonna come here."
Texas has become ground zero in the border wall war. Rios wants a solution to drug trafficking and illegal immigration but questions whether a physical barrier along the US-Mexico border is needed. He's not the only Texan who thinks so. While the state overwhelmingly voted for Trump in 2016 and thousands of people cheered the president on at the El Paso rally, interviews with Texans who'll have to live and deal with a concrete wall or steel barrier -- plus a mix of drones, high-tech cameras, sensors, license plate scanners and other digital surveillance systems -- say the wall may be a hard sell.
"We all want to have security in various ways and the border included," says John Ferguson, the mayor of Presidio, a border town east of El Paso. "But Trump's wall would make the United States a big, gated community."
https://www.cnet.com/news/trump-wants-a-border-wall-texas-may-want-a-smarter-alternative/?ftag=CAD-04-10aai6g&bhid=24447454298893839703959737945916
