cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/31570120
Four years after Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas would be the first state to build its own border wall, lawmakers have quietly stopped funding the project, leaving only scattered segments covering a small fraction of the border.
That decision, made in the waning hours of this year’s legislative session, leaves the future of the state wall unclear. Just 8% of the 805 miles the state identified for construction is complete, which has cost taxpayers more than $3 billion to date. The Texas Tribune reported last year that the wall is full of gaps that migrants and smugglers can easily walk around and mostly concentrated on sprawling ranches in rural areas, where illegal border crossings are less likely to occur.
State leaders suggested the federal government could pick up the effort. However, during President Donald Trump’s first term, when wall building was his top priority, his administration completed just 21 miles in Texas — about a third of what the state was able to build over the past four years.
The Tribune reported last year that the state’s wall program would take around 30 years and more than $20 billion to complete.
That picture is fuckin hilarious if that’s literally as far as it got. It’s a perfect monument to the failure. Slap a plaque on it.
It’s a failure, yes, but they did complete 65 miles of fence. Just not all in one spot.
They basically built some free fences for a few ranchers who took advantage of the opportunity.
Well I guess that’s a glass half full? At least someone benefited from our wasted tax dollars to some extent.
At 50 million dollars a mile spent on shitty fences, I think we’re a long way from half-full.
At 65 out of 1254 miles, I think we’re a long way from half-fenced.
It’s fully half-assed
Utter failure, that is the legacy of the Republican party
everything they talk about is bigger in texas.
No need for it now. America is so shit nobody wants to go there.
Be Mexico building the wall soon to keep Texans out.
Mexico building the wall soon
So Trump is keeping promises?
LOL.
Thats one way to get ices 3000/d arrest quota
That was so 2016. We are all about full on fascism now.
Hey, I smell a scam. What happened to all those billions that Mexico gave us to build that wall?!
It was always a boondoggle and another grift.
So now the Oklahomans are free to invade?
I’d say that this is the good ending but not even the Texans deserve to be subject to Oklahomans.
No self loving Mexican would ever cross that thing… They would go around… Off in the distance, unseen.
Unfortunate. The metal materials of that wall was an excellent donation program to local businesses.
/s…? 🤔
How many college educations could have been fully funded for $3 billion? How many elementary schools built? How many other worthwhile problems could have been solved, rather than building a bunch of worthless crumbling garbage out in the desert?
Yeah, but that would be, like, helping people man.
Bootstraps motherfuckers!
So what happened to the $77 billion left to build the wall? Oh, they griffed it. Just like everything the Donvict makes, it goes to shit and he runs off with the money. Suddenly there’s no more immigrant crisis on the Texas border. Clearly it wasn’t the fucking wall that stopped it. Also, all that imminent domain claimed on farmers and habitat owners also just had their land completely stolen not for “imminent domain” purposes.
His next term is in 2026. That’s right, he’s going for a 20 year tenure. There is not a limit on how many times you can be a Texas governor.
He’s too popular. Precisely because he brought $77B into the state to line his friends’ pockets.
Who is going to run against Abbott that isn’t just a more Fash version of him? Any Democrat that runs will campaign on “Actually I always supported the wall and I’m upset he didn’t build it fast enough”. Any Republican in the primaries will complain that Abbott is too nice to Jews.
And then every newspaper and TV channel in the state will endorse him, because that’s what their sponsors told them to do. The state will split 46/54, with a weird 40,000 vote undercount in Harris County and six counties in the Panhandle voting GOP to a man. And he’ll be in for another four years while the Green Party gets blamed for another liberal defeat.
Any Democrat that runs will campaign on “Actually I always supported the wall and I’m upset he didn’t build it fast enough”.
Maybe they should try not being an idiot.
Sorry, I hired a political consultant at $12,000/hr and he told me voters will only support idiots.
Besides, we need to do something as a party to distance ourselves from Muslims, Women, PoC, and the LGBTQ community. They’re holding us back and scaring off all the white male social media millionaires!
I see your argument, but having an opposing candidate that can read the room may significantly increase chances of victory. Of course, victory is a very fleeting concept for democrats.
But it was so important?
Billions of rapists and hyper-violent drugged out gang members are flooding over the border every second.
Does Texas not care about protecting their people? The country?
Or… was it all absolute fucking bullshit designed to funnel a few million dollars to one of Abbotts cohorts?
