Houston Chronicle May 29, 2019
It’s called Monument One. A 12-foot boundary marker, erected in 1855 near El Paso, on the axis of three states and two countries — a single desert point where cultures have mixed and merged for centuries.
It’s a sign of the times that the white obelisk now sits in the shadow of a 20-foot, half-mile fence to nowhere, paid for by followers of President Trump. Built on private property with crowd-funded money, the barrier of steel posts connects to nothing and serves no purpose. Call it Monument Zero.
The fence was scheduled to be completed Wednesday but local officials determined the project didn’t have the proper permits and issued a cease-and-desist order to stop construction late Tuesday.
In truth, the importance of that bit of fencing isn’t its impact on illegal border crossings. After all, over the past decade Border Patrol agents averaged fewer than 17,000 arrests per year in the sector (compared with more than 130,000 in the Rio Grande Valley). Most of the crossings occur far from the city, and the reason there wasn’t a fence there already is because of the difficult terrain and heavy law enforcement presence.
More:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/editorials/article/Border-fence-to-nowhere-a-monument-to-inaction-13904558.php
