Trump’s $25 Billion Wall needs a Math Reality Check! $200 billion is more realistic!

Captain Rick: Trump’s $25 billion Wall needs a Math Reality Check! $200 billion is more realistic! Trump wants to build a ‘big beautiful’ 2000 mile border wall between the US and Mexico for $25 billion (about $12.5 million per mile). What a JOKE!

Arizona is in process of building the South Mountain Freeway, bypassing Phoenix to the south. Its cost is nearly $2 billion for a 22 mile stretch of freeway (almost $200 million per mile).

Trumps estimate of $25 billion to build a ‘big beautiful’ wall is only about 1/8 the cost of what it takes to build a freeway per mile. I think Trump’s estimate of $25 billion is far short of reality. $200 billion ($.2 trillion) would be more realistic. I suggest Trump had better take a flash course in Math 101 before he trades away amnesty for millions of dreamers for a wall that can never be afforded.

Captain Rick’s Research
I have invested many hours over recent years studying illegal drug and immigration smuggling routes into Arizona, America’s most porous border with Mexico. I have viewed every foot of the border using Google & Bing satellite view using the closest zoom. Most of the border has no fence of any kind. Walls and fences are situated only near cities and major highways. The balance is wide open desert and mountain terrain.

America’s Most Porous Border for Illegal Drugs and Immigration is Arizona
The most porous section of the U.S.-Mexico border lies across the 75 mile southern boundary of the Tohono O’Odham Nation Reservation, which occupies a huge section of southern Arizona south of I-8 / I-10, between Sasabe (west of Nogales) and Sonoyta (Hwy 8 heading to Rocky Point). Viewing a satellite view of the area we can easily see a large geological scar … a canyon with a dry river bed / raging river during a monsoon …that runs from I-8, about 30 miles west of the I-8 / I-10 split, south past Ventana and Pisiemo and on into Mexico just east of Ali Chuk. It is the #1 illegal immigrant and drug smuggling super-route between the U.S. and Mexico. A big reason is because the entire route is virtually off limits to the U.S. border patrol due to U.S. / Nation treaties / laws. A large number of Nation Members receive payouts from the smugglers in exchange food, safe haven and lookout reports. In essence, they work for the smuggling cartels to protect this smuggling super-route from Mexico almost to the southern boundary of Phoenix. I suspect it is the most popular occupation in the Tohono O’Odham Nation, where unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse and consumption of welfare and Medicaid handouts is enormous.

Options for a Border Wall
If a border wall were built everywhere across the Mexico border, except this Arizona canyon, it would be of little benefit because a large number of the smugglers are using this super-route. The only kind of wall that would work would be dam, far more expensive than a wall, or even a section of freeway. The cost of a dam could run into the billions, eating up a big chunk of Trump’s $25 billion ‘piggy bank’ wall account. Several more problems exist. The dam across this canyon would create a lake that would flood major portions of the reservation. The U.S. government would have to strike a deal to compensate Tohono O’Odham Nation due to tribal treaties and laws. How many billions would that cost? To make the situation worse, this canyon is only one of many on the reservation, not to mention the large number elsewhere along the U.S. border. Building a dam across all of the canyons would run into the trillions and would be fiscally unaffordable and profoundly stupid.

Building a ‘Virtual Wall’ is an option, but based on data I have seen, they are a miserable failure. Unless America wants to employ military strike jets to respond, the smugglers are long gone before the ‘virtual technology’ enables the border patrol to respond, sometimes taking hours … and is almost impossible on the Tohono O’Odham Nation Reservation.

This is a story that few Americans understand … perhaps even President Trump
I urge readers to comment with thoughts and ideas to expand this post. I will revise/add to it as comments are received. I will also add new tags so that everyone in the world can search and find it via the WordPress, Google, Bing and other search engines. Together, perhaps we can help make America better.

Captain Rick: What do you think of Trump’s Wall?