The Wall, The Barrier, The Fence, Etc.

Bannon's group built the wall — a mile of it, anyway — over the weekend
Melissa Rossi, Contributor
Yahoo News, May 27, 2019

BARCELONA, Spain — In what might be seen as a Memorial Day gift to President Trump, residents of a mountain range outside of El Paso today woke up to a new vista—a mile-long wall of metal slats constructed along the border with Mexico that just shot up over the weekend. The secret project, which started on Friday evening and was completed by Monday morning, was the work of We Build the Wall, a new group whose director is the former White House strategist Steve Bannon. The CEO is Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, who had raised $20 million to build the wall through his GoFundMe project, but it appeared to be floundering until Bannon took the helm.

Bannon, who for much of the weekend was in Kazakhstan for a geopolitical seminar, says the project, overseen by construction mogul Tommy Fisher of North Dakota-based Fisher Industries, involved hundreds of workers and cost $6 million.

He says his group asked local authorities what is the most dangerous part of the border with Mexico, and they were pointed to this precarious mountain strip, “where the cartels and asylum seekers are coming in” through a gap between two 21-mile strips of completed wall. The group hastily “purchased the rights” to the land and went at it Friday evening. “We had to catch them by surprise,” says Bannon, who predicts residents are “gonna freak out” when they see what was erected over the past two days.


At the U.S.-Mexico border
Screenshot: We Build the Wall

Perhaps construction is Bannon’s new calling. His political activities in Europe geared to shift the EU to the hard right didn’t go as well as anticipated in parliamentary elections this weekend. The nationalist and populist parties he’s been advising across the continent — among them Italy’s La Lega, headed by Matteo Salvini, and France’s National Rally party of Marie Le Pen — did make gains in elections. Both parties came in first in their respective countries, with National Rally beating out La République en Marche party of French president Emmanuel Macron. However, others, such as Dutchman Geert Wilders’s anti-Islam Party of Freedom were trounced — losing all four of their currently held Parliament seats; the Bannon-advised anti-immigrant, anti-abortion Vox Party, a newcomer in Spain, which took 10 percent in last month’s national elections, scored scarcely 6 percent in this weekend’s elections. (Most EU countries saw record turnouts of over 50 percent.)

In total, the hard-right parties that Bannon had predicted would take at least 30 percent of seats — at points he suggested they might take half of the Parliament —causing an “earthquake” for the European Union, instead won scarcely 25 percent of seats. While the showing represented an increase over the 22 percent they gained in 2014 elections — it fell short of the one-third of the European Parliament’s 571 seats that would be required to form a bloc that could effectively hinder legislation and nominations to the higher ranks of the EU.

Video at https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/bannon-built-the-wall-over-the-weekend-140449962.html

Border Patrol: More than 2,200 migrants apprehended in El Paso sector on Memorial Day
More than 18-hundred in El Paso area alone
Posted: May 28, 2019 03:12 PM MDT

   
EL PASO, Texas - Border Patrol Agents in the El Paso sector apprehended more than 2,200 undocumented immigrants "who entered the country illegally" on Memorial Day.

The Border Patrol said it was "the busiest recent day of enforcement activity for El Paso Sector Border Patrol Agents during the ongoing influx" of migrants.  The U.S. Border Patrol's El Paso sector includes El Paso and Hudspeth Counties in Texas and all of New Mexico.

The more than 2,200 apprehensions included two large groups and many smaller groups, the agency said.

The record-setting day began in the boot heel of New Mexico with a large group of more than 200 undocumented immigrants apprehended near the Antelope Wells Port of Entry just after 2 a.m.  



"A second enormous group was one of the largest in El Paso Sector thus far" with more than 430 people crossing the border just west of Bowie High School in El Paso at around 7 a.m., the Border Patrol said.

According to the Border Patrol, 1,850 of the more than 2,200 migrants taken into custody were apprehended in the "geographic area between Executive Boulevard and Midway Street in El Paso."

The groups consisted mostly of Central American families and unaccompanied children.

"This fiscal year to date, the El Paso Sector has arrested over 130 thousand illegal aliens, compared to over 16,000 during the same time last fiscal year," the Border Patrol said.

https://www.kvia.com/news/border/border-patrol-more-than-2-200-migrants-apprehended-in-el-paso-sector-on-memorial-day/1081626393

'Largest-ever’ group of illegal migrants attempts to cross Mexico-US border
Published on May 31, 2019

CCTV footage captured what the US Border Patrol call the ‘largest group of illegal aliens ever encountered’ after crossing the Mexico-US border, in El Paso on Wednesday morning.

1,000 crossed in one group!!!

They want yer jobs.

U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to Del Rio Sector apprehended a large group of 116 individuals—from Angola, Cameroon and Congo—after they illegally crossed the Rio Grande River into the U.S. on Thursday:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1134582068934008837

Tens of thousands of images stolen in US border hack
4 hours ago | Reuters

Images of tens of thousands of people crossing the US border with Mexico have been stolen in a major hack, the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) has said.

The breach, which affected the network of a sub-contractor, also saw photos of vehicle licence plates stolen, said the CBP.

It said fewer than 100,000 people were affected based on "initial reports".

It also contradicted claims that image data had been shared on the dark web.

"CBP has alerted Members of Congress and is working closely with other law enforcement agencies and cyber-security entities... to actively investigate the incident," it added.

CBP uses cameras at airports and land border crossings as part of a growing facial-recognition programme designed to track people entering and exiting the US.

The agency said the sub-contractor in the breach had stored the images on its systems without official consent, and that CBP's own systems were not affected.

The pictures were of people in vehicles entering and leaving the country via a single border entry point, which CBP did not name.

It said that no other identifying information - such as passport data or other travel document photos - had been compromised.

In late May, technology news website the Register reported that images of licence plates belonging to vehicles passing through CBP checkpoints had been shared on the dark web.

But the agency, which learned of the breach on 31 May, said none of the image data had been identified "on the dark web or internet".

US law enforcement agencies argue that facial recognition systems enhance border security and help to catch criminals.

But there are growing concerns they may infringe privacy and increase the risk of identity theft.

Senator Ron Wyden told the Washington Post: "If the government collects sensitive information about Americans, it is responsible for protecting it - and that's just as true if it contracts with a private company.

"Anyone whose information was compromised should be notified by customs, and the government needs to explain exactly how it intends to prevent this kind of breach from happening in the future."

Neema Singh Guliani, senior legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, said: "This breach comes just as CBP seeks to expand its massive face recognition apparatus and collection of sensitive information from travellers, including licence plate information and social media identifiers.

"This incident further underscores the need to put the brakes on these efforts and for Congress to investigate the agency's data practices.

30/07/2019 13:27 BST | Updated 5 hours ago

Someone Installed See-Saws At The US-Mexico Border So Kids Can Play Together
One of its creators described it as an “event filled with joy, excitement, and togetherness”.

Children on either side of the US-Mexico border are finally able to play together after an innovative set of see-saws was installed at the barrier wall.

The result of a decade-long project dreamed up by two professors, Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello, the idea became a reality on Monday when the Teetertotter Wall finally opened to the public.

It consists of pink see-saws anchored to the fence separating the two countries.



Posting a video of the project on Instagram, Rael described it as “one of the most incredible experiences of my... career” and an “event filled with joy, excitement, and togetherness”.



He added: “The wall became a literal fulcrum for US-Mexico relations and children and adults were connected in meaningful ways on both sides with the recognition that the actions that take place on one side have a direct consequence on the other side.”

The installation is welcome ray of light from an area that consistently makes headlines for stories of death, detention and political posturing.

Last month a picture of a father and her 23-month-old daughter, dead and lying face down in the Rio Grande laid bare the often fatal reality of the thousands of migrants that flee South America in search of a more prosperous life in the US.

President Trump’s quest to build his long-vaunted border wall was given a boost earlier this week when the US Supreme Court cleared the way for the his administration to use billions of dollars in Pentagon funds to build it.



The court’s five conservative justices gave the administration the green light to begin work on four contracts it has awarded using Defence Department money.

Funding for the projects had been frozen by lower courts while a lawsuit over the money proceeded, the Press Association reports.

Videos at https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/see-saws-us-mexico-border_uk_5d4023d4e4b0db8affae339e

Border Patrol building 30-foot wall in Arizona
Associated Press
Published on Sep 10, 2019

The US Border Patrol has begun construction of five miles of a 30-foot border wall along the Colorado River near Yuma, Arizona. The wall is replacing an older barrier that was designed to stop vehicles from crossing, but allowed people to pass. (Sept. 10)

Published 2 hours ago
Border Patrol nabs human-trafficking suspects, migrants after hole cut in US-Mexico barrier, truck driven through; 16 arrested
By Jack Durschlag | Fox News

Human trafficking suspects operating along the U.S.-Mexico border this week thought they had an ingenious way to bring illegal immigrants into California – but federal Border Patrol agents were one step ahead of them, tracking down and arresting all 16 people, authorities said Thursday.

The suspects' plan involved cutting a massive hole in a section of the border wall and driving a truck through the gap, The Sacramento Bee reported.

The opening was cut near Campo, Calif., about 50 miles east of San Diego, about 3:45 p.m. Wednesday. The suspects then drove a white Dodge utility truck across the border, the report said.

An alert Border Patrol agent spotted a suspect near the truck attempting to use bold cutters on a private fence. The group attempted to flee when authorities closed in, the Bee reported.

When Border Patrol agents eventually caught up with the truck, the suspects and the immigrants took off on foot, the Bee reported.

A short chase ensued before all 16 people were ultimately captured, the Sacramento Bee reported.

The group was reportedly composed of nine Mexican men between ages 15 and 53, five Mexican women between ages 18 and 40, a 28-year-old Guatemalan man and a 29-year-old Guatemalan woman. In addition, the 27-year-old driver of the truck was also apprehended, the newspaper reported.

Grackle wrote:

https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/terence-p-jeffrey/house-votes-enhance-border-security-jordan-lebanon-egypt-and-tunisia?fbclid=IwAR3pfcyRMr_B2jMjJnkIggICcW-J7uFdmh41wzOyiID_7ffYrmH2RsDTBBw

Jeeze...that is pathetic.

Temple wrote:

you like YouTubes; enjoy.
FUCK TRUMP & Republicans--

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10 years ago OBAMA was the president.  




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Temple wrote:

President Obama oversaw the fence’s construction.

Your point is??

The Wise And Powerful wrote:

Temple wrote:

President Obama oversaw the fence’s construction.

Your point is??

BWAAHAA that's all you got ahaa..