Author Topic: Texas only needs 200 miles of border wall — not 1,200 — says Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick  (Read 641 times)

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Houston Chronicle by Jeremy Wallace 1/9/2019

A day after being at the White House to consult with the Trump administration on the border wall, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Wednesday that the state doesn’t need a barrier along the entire Rio Grande River from Brownsville to El Paso.

Instead, Patrick said the key is building barriers from Brownsville to Falcon Lake. That is a stretch of fewer than 200 miles.

“We need to build the wall, or you can call it a wall, you can call it a steel fence, a barrier, between Brownsville and Falcon Lake. That’s where about half of the people who cross the border illegally in the country come. They come in that area,” Patrick said, at a business event in Austin.

Patrick said a more substantial wall in that area would push people illegally crossing the border to “no man’s land” where border patrol and cameras can better intercept them.

Patrick said beyond the wall, the issue on the border is a short-staffed U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency that needs to hire 800 more border patrol agents. He said with adequate staffing, authorities would “easily” be able to apprehend people crossing unwalled portions of the border that are more remote.

More: https://www.chron.com/g00/news/politics/texas/article/Texas-only-needs-200-miles-of-border-wall-not-13520856.php