Op-Ed: A dismissal at Customs and Border Protection shows how hard law enforcement reform can be
The border wall has become part of national politics. It is a campaign issue, a way to demonize a president, and a symbol of his administration’s failures.
While President Trump has promised a wall, it’s not what he said he would do. And while he’s blamed his predecessor, he’s never come right out and called for one. That might be because he’s convinced that it would be a political loser.
But there is a problem with the proposed barrier. It may be the most expensive border wall ever built, but it would be much more expensive to build a wall that is never meant to be completed — and would be much more difficult to use.
The current system of border patrol agents does a good job, but it’s a tough tasking environment — and sometimes an impossible one. It is one of the most difficult assignments. And there are many factors causing that because of the high number of drugs smuggled across the border and the amount of violence.
In September, El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen, asked a question that has been asked and answered many times before: “Would it be better to just have a wall that we can build and tear down, or is it better to have a barrier that is always there?”
“I think the border patrol agents would say it’s best to have a barrier that is always there,” he said. “A wall would be a deterrent, but it’d be harder to see. To have a wall that we can tear down as needed, it would be very difficult to maintain. It would be harder to know where the dirt and rock was coming from and where it was going, and how quickly it was going.”
“That’s something that’s not