Test of steel prototype for border wall showed it could be sawed through

Test of steel prototype for border wall showed it could be sawed through

A photo shows that the steel columns were breached with a common industrial tool.

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A test of a steel prototype for the proposed border wall showed it could be sawed through.NBC News Exclusive

Jan. 10, 2019, 4:54 AM PST / Updated Jan. 10, 2019, 5:00 AM PST
By Jacob Soboroff and Julia Ainsley

President Donald Trump has repeatedly advocated for a steel slat design for his border wall, which he described as "absolutely critical to border security" in his Oval Office address to the nation Tuesday.

But Department of Homeland Security testing of a steel slat prototype proved it could be cut through with a saw, according to a report by DHS.

A photo exclusively obtained by NBC News shows the results of the test after military and Border Patrol personnel were instructed to attempt to destroy the barriers with common tools.

The Trump administration directed the construction of eight steel and concrete prototype walls that were built in Otay Mesa, California, just across the border from Tijuana, Mexico. Trump inspected the prototypes in March 2018. He has now settled on a steel slat, or steel bollard, design for the proposed border barrier additions. Steel bollard fencing has been used under previous administrations.

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Test of border prototype showed its weaknesses

JAN. 10, 201904:0
However, testing by DHS in late 2017 showed all eight prototypes, including the steel slats, were vulnerable to breaching, according to an internal February 2018 U.S. Customs and Border Protection report.

Photos of the breaches were not included in a redacted version of the CBP report, which was first obtained in a Freedom of Information Act Request by San Diego public broadcaster KPBS.

The photo of testing results obtained by NBC News was taken at the testing location along the California-Mexico border, known as "Pogo Row."

Responding to the picture from the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday morning, Trump claimed "that’s a wall designed by previous administrations."

While it is true that previous administrations used this design, the prototype was built during his administration.

"It's very, very hard — the wall that we are doing is very, very hard to penetrate," Trump said.

NBC News toured the eight wall prototypes twice before President Trump's March 2018 inspection.

According to San Diego Sector Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott, the versions seen by NBC News and the president, however, were larger than the actual prototypes tested at "Pogo Row."

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Mulvaney says WH offer to Democrats: Steel, not concrete

JAN. 5, 201901:13
In a statement, DHS Spokeswoman Katie Waldman said, "The steel bollard construction is based on the operational requirements of the United States Border Patrol and is a design that has been honed over more than a decade of use. It is an important part of Border Patrol's impedance and denial capability."

"While the design currently being constructed was informed by what we learned in the prototypes, it does not replicate those designs," said Waldman.

"The steel bollard design is internally reinforced with materials that require time and multiple industrial tools to breach, thereby providing U.S. Border Patrol agents additional response time to affect a successful law enforcement resolution. In the event that one of the steel bollards becomes damaged, it is quick and cost-effective to repair.

"The professionals on the border know that a wall system is intended not only to prevent entry, it is intended to defer and to increase the amount of time and effort it takes for one to enter so that we can respond with limited border patrol agents. Even a wall that is being breached is a valuable tool in that it allows us to respond to the attempted illegal entry."

In response to KPBS, CBP spokesman Ralph DeSio said the prototypes "were not and cannot be designed to be indestructible," but were designed to "impede or deny efforts to scale, breach, or dig under such a barrier, giving agents time to respond."

In his address to the nation Tuesday, Trump said the steel fence design is "what our professionals at the border want and need. This is just common sense."

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Trump: Steel prototype of border wall was from previous administrations

JAN. 10, 201904:52

As a candidate, Trump promised to build an "impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful" wall on the border that would be paid for by Mexico. Before the Oval Office address, the White House's Office of Management and Budget sent a letter to Congress requesting $5.7 billion for the construction of 234 miles of steel barrier.

Amid a government shutdown over his border wall proposal, Trump will travel to McAllen, Texas Thursday to make the case for building the additional border barrier.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D.-Miss., said there is "nothing special" about Trump's wall design.

"President Trump likes to pretend a wall will solve all our problems, but it's been clear for some time that it is little more than a very expensive vanity project," said Thompson. "Whether steel or concrete, there is nothing special about his wall and it will not secure our borders. Democrats are willing to work with the administration to improve our border security, but let's get back to proven and effective solutions."

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Cut off the birthright citizenship and freebies...can't saw through that and it saves us BILLIONS of dollars.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Beezer

Cut off the birthright citizenship and freebies...can't saw through that and it saves us BILLIONS of dollars.

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You are so right, Beezer.

The picture shown is not even solid steel. It's just a little concrete encased with a thin outer-layer of steel. Silly me, I was always under the impression it was solid steel. Hmm, nothing like governmental transparency. :(

Solid steel would be much more expensive and extremely heavy. Hardened steel could be using for the casing but this would also be expensive. Safe manufacturers put pellets of very hard material in the walls of safes to break the blades of anything attempting to cut through. This could be done with the concrete in the pillars at a modest cost.

I think NBC committed a treason publishing this information. All testing information, material data concerning the fence or wall should be classified. The media's interest in trying to parse the words of the President or try to display in some fashion that he's not "keeping his promise" is threatening our national security. It needs to stop and stop now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Judy

I think NBC committed a treason publishing this information. All testing information, material data concerning the fence or wall should be classified. The media's interest in trying to parse the words of the President or try to display in some fashion that he's not "keeping his promise" is threatening our national security. It needs to stop and stop now.

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Nothing worthy of being classified and kept from the American public here. I'm feeling pretty stupid right now, I may be the only person in the free world that thought the bollard fencing was solid steel. :lol:

TRUMP’S BORDER WALL PHOTO OP HITS AN EMBARRASSING SNAG

The president says steel slats are stronger than a concrete wall. Too bad the bars can be cut in half with a saw.

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BY

• TINA NGUYEN

JANUARY 10, 2019 4:23 PM

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By Mario Tama/Getty Images.

Setting aside concerns that a trip to the border is “not going to change a damn thing,” Donald Trump arrived in McAllen, Texas, on Thursday to surveil the site of his proposed border wall and make the case for $5.7 billion to fund it. As his administration weighs whether he has leeway to use emergency powers to reappropriate Defense Department money, the president has run up against additional harsh realities, including dwindling support among Republicans, and unyielding Texas landowners, some of whom, according to the Associated Press, would take the fight to court should the government attempt to seize their property via eminent domain. (“You could give me a trillion dollars and I wouldn’t take [a buyout offer],” declared one landowner.) Perhaps the most hilarious hiccup in the president’s plan is one he inadvertently introduced when he acquiesced to a “steel slat” fence—rather than a concrete wall—a barrier that can be overcome with the sort of tools one would find at Home Depot.

An internal February 2018 U.S. Customs and Border Protection report—a redacted version of which was first obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request by KPBS—described a test run by the Department of Homeland Security in late 2017, in which D.H.S. employees were challenged to breach all eight border-barrier prototypes, both concrete and steel, with anything they had on hand. Per the report, all eight prototypes failed the test, with the steel-slat design favored by the president falling prey to a common saw.

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Dept. of Homeland Security testing of a steel slat prototype for border wall proved it could be cut through with a saw, according to a report by DHS.

A photo obtained by @NBCNews shows the results of the test. https://nbcnews.to/2AE45mG


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9:29 AM - Jan 10, 2019

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In a statement to NBC, D.H.S. spokeswoman Katie Waldman explained that the steel-bollard design had been in use for over a decade, and had served as a successful deterrent, rather than a physical barrier. “The steel-bollard design is internally reinforced with materials that require time and multiple industrial tools to breach, thereby providing U.S. Border Patrol agents additional response time to affect a successful law-enforcement resolution,” she said. “In the event that one of the steel bollards becomes damaged, it is quick and cost-effective to repair.”

“Providing U.S. Border Patrol agents additional response time” is nothing to sniff at, but it’s a far cry from Trump’s feverish demands for a big, beautiful, concrete, rebar-strengthened wall that would stretch from sea to shining sea. This sort of walk-back has effectively been in progress for months; in September 2017, for example, then-D.H.S. spokesman David Lapan told Breitbart News, “‘The Wall’ doesn’t mean a single, monolithic structure, but refers instead to a combination of walls, fences, and barriers complemented by the smart and effective use of technology.” In recent weeks, Trump himself has wavered on the exact makeup of his preferred barrier, tweeting that steel was “stronger” and “less obtrusive” than concrete, and (falsely) claiming that a steel barrier had been requested by Democrats.
Of course, what really matters to the president isn’t what Democrats think, but how the ultimate iteration of said wall would be received by the 25 percent of Americans who say they “supported Trump shutting down the government over the matter.“ Judging by Ann Coulter and Stephen Miller’s recent media appearances, the base is gradually warming to the prospect: “[Israel’s] border wall with Egypt, I believe, is part wall and part fence. It was 99 point-something effective,” Coulter told Breitbart News last week, quoting a statistic Trump claims to have heard from Benjamin Netanyahu.

Addressing Border Patrol agents in McAllen on Thursday, Trump said steel is “more expensive” than concrete, but stronger: “I like it better, if you want to know the truth.” Unfortunately for the president, steel slats appear to be less popular with some elements on the far right than the sort of prison-yard walls one might find in Israel. How ironic if, after shutting down the government to appease the base, MAGA-world sours on Trump’s great wall, anyway?

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https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images...nlt_normal.jpgJacob Wohl
✔@JacobAWohl

The steel slat barrier is a piece of junk! In DHS testing, they were able to cut through it with a basic household saw

No wonder the Democrats want it

To stop the invasion, President Trump needs to build a concrete wall like the one Israel has


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https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/01/border-fence-cut-through-with-saw-donald-trump

I certainly like Israel's wall. I wonder what the cost for something like that is? When Trump was campaigning, that's sort of the version of a wall I thought he was speaking about.