Section of Trump's Border Wall Blows Down Which Pretty Much Sums Up His Immigration Policy

Some newly installed panels of the President's "virtually impenetrable" border wall in California blew over on Wednesday [video here], landing on the Mexican side of the border. To be fair, it wasn't actually new border wall, just replacement panels that Trump likes to count as new border wall because only about a half mile of new border fencing has been built.

Authorities in Mexicali, Mexico responded quickly and there were no injuries. Luckily there were trees on the Mexican side which prevented the wall from falling onto a street.

Customs and Border Protection officials blamed the accident on windy conditions and said the concrete holding the wall in place hadn't totally dried. The National Weather Service reported wind gusts up to 30 MPH in the area at the time.

One should not read too much into this, but it comes directly on the heels of folks cutting through the new "Trump fencing" with cheap power tools and viral videos of individuals easily scaling the wall. And expensive, time-consuming lawsuits filed by unhappy border residents, have stalled any real progress on the fence. All of this was predicted, of course, but it was Donald Trump's signature campaign promise, so the administration has worked to deliver something, even if it ends up falling in a heap in Mexicali.

But, the thing about the wall was that it was always a metaphor, a symbol of white backlash against the growing diversity in America. Building the wall represents keeping the brown people at bay. So, no one in the White House particularly cares that it's not an effective way to address illegal immigration or that more Mexicans have been leaving the country than entering since early in the Obama administration, or that today most illegals are entering the country legally and just overstaying their visas. None of that matters because it was never really about any of that. Trump's supporters cheer when he talks about the wall because it makes them feel like he understands their resentments, shares their fond memories of a snowy white America in which no one ever had to "press one for English."

As a result, America isn't going to be able to have a calm, reasonable, fact-based conversation about immigration until Donald Trump leaves the White House. Until then, he will plow ahead with his fence, folks will climb over, tunnel under, or it will just fall down.

#opinion #news #immigration

By: Don Lam & Curated Content