Mexicans see models of Trump’s ‘impenetrable’ wall, and they’re not impressed

SAN DIEGO — The prototypes of the Trump border wall are taking shape this month in a sunbaked swath of scrubland abutting a run-down neighborhood of Tijuana, Mexico. Lined up next to each other, the 30-foot-tall concrete and steel sample barriers — some with extra-stout reinforced bases, others topped with metal spikes — certainly look ominous.

Most of the Mexican reaction to these prototypes ranges from offended to blasé. Residents of Tijuana and other border cities have lived with various types of American barriers for years, and they are used to them. The existing fence here, built in the mid-1990s, is roughly 10 feet tall and made out of metal sheets from helicopter landing pads left over from the Vietnam War. A second layer of more-modern steel-mesh fence, 14 to 18 feet tall, stands behind that.
“What insult is there if it’s in your country?” said the policeman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. “What insults me is the government of Mexico, which doesn’t care about its own people. This is an insult. The money being robbed that they are not spending on schools, on science.”

Since the project abuts Tijuana, residents on the Mexican side have the best view of the construction. These neighborhoods, such as Las Torres and Nido de Las Aguilas, are poor and violent, clusters of shanties along unpaved roads. Two burned-out cars, torched within the past month, were abandoned near the fence.


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