[quote=@mdk]
1. [url=http://www.dailywire.com/news/15417/report-border-crossings-down-93-percent-aaron-bandler#exit-modal]Prepare to be impressed![/url] Just by talking about it, we've made a big dent. Follow-through is important though, or else that's all coming right back.
[/quote] 

Okay, we don't have to construct a money sink. Problem solved. 

[quote]2. 600 of 1900 miles, if my sources are any good (they're probably not) are currently walled. That's a LOT of open territory. Anyway if we had the sensible places all shored up then why do we still have illegal immigration? [/quote]

You get your visa overstays and your people using coyotes. Yeh, you'll have people skipping through the desert, but what I am arguing is that the continuous cost of such a bizarre construct doesn't match the threat from this specific subset of illegal immigrants. 

[quote]3. I mean I'm waiting to see what the project looks like before declaring it useless. One proposal involved covering the whole thing in solar panels -- I mean how badass would that be? We are, after all, talking about deserts. That could be huge. Another proposal worked in some mass transit (though I dunno how many passengers/goods take that route -- I mean I guess our own little land-borne panama canal could be neat). [/quote]

I'm not sure of the practicality of constructing your solar farm as a straight line in terms of dollars spent. A highway along that route would be redundant since I-10 seems to fill that roll. I mean, these ideas sound neat on paper, but they kinda feel a lot like attempts to justify a money sink. 

[quote]The reality of managing the upkeep of a mostly concrete and steel structure is minimal in a desert; it isn't like it is going to rust that much.[/quote]

A simple cement boundary in the desert would be completely irrelevant. For a wall to be effective it has to be constantly manned and serviced, which is the primary cost involved. Without all that, it's just sort of an obstacle in what is already an obstacle course naturally speaking.

But again, I'm not opposing it. It's a pork project. Government has been dealing with pork projects since forever. Hillary Clinton wouldn't have dealt with any real issues either, so it's pretty much neither here nor there for me. Better than having him fuck up anything that matters.