President Donald Trump's border wall with Mexico takes shape

for anyone who doubts Donald Trump when he talks about guarding against illegal immigrants who sneaked into the u.s. from Mexico every single day consider the Rio Grande River Bank here in the small town of Roma Texas there spread out somewhere down there in the thick of all this u.s. Border Patrol agents have just spotted something right where I'm at or 15 someone may be more hiding deep in the reeds at river's edge would you step back at me soon enough they're captured and handcuffed two men who just dared cross into America the 11th and 12th illegal migrants found right here on this day by lunchtime a place where there's no wall no fence just that River separating the u.s. from Mexico at least that's all there is for now if Donald Trump has his way one of these will be the kind of thing that will soon change that border forever outside San Diego they are the freshly minted prototypes for his long-promised border wall catching the eye already of Border Patrol agents kicking the tires checking them out each with pros and cons slight variations but a key theme all of them are imposing all of them are meant to be high enough and tough enough to stop illegal border crossings into America the winning design still TBA a few steps south of those prototypes there is a wall in this part of Southern California it's been in place for years it's ramshackle and repairs where migrants have cut their way through it are everywhere 20 minutes to the west and part of it even runs into the Pacific and even on this day here it doesn't do its job these three now held by Border Patrol told us they fled Gambia in April and had just now squeezed through the old fence right where the water meets the beach Trump's wall when and if it's ever built is meant to stop all of it but at what price back in Texas a state rich in cross border culture with its fast growing Hispanic population El Paso typifies the mounting opposition to Trump's wall so who is that not to us Border Patrol that is one of their helicopters because we're standing here near the border they've come out to just they do that ideas because of that and also they do that in a regular way human rights activist Fernando Garcia took us just outside the city where there's been a wall for a decade and where Trump's plans to make it bigger and more imposing are met with resentment on both sides barakatuh response away from that when tram leaves they're gonna tear down this wall is gonna put a fence so people will be able to come across hispanic-americans trump's bigger stronger wall is little more than a big ugly symbol we're talking about hate and we'll talk about about issues of race and we're talking about sin a phobia that's what is the essence of this wall do you believe Latinos will rise up and register and vote and and change the future of Texas because of this wall and because of immigration cause I don't have any doubt that Latinos are gonna be more active politically and I do believe that there's gonna be a major backlash yeah a political backlash and though Trump talks about a wall fact is that old fence stretches along a fair chunk of the border already even if in parts it can seem absurd in some places it just stops elsewhere being often not quite on the actual border it cuts through farmlands so they've left gaps to allow American farmers free passage within their own country in yet other places geography makes a wall seem needless let alone problematic not to mention unsightly imagine a giant wall 9 meters high cutting through this Vista so when we look out there I think those hills that's Mexico that's Mexico actually it's Mexico 40 yards away from there we've hiked through all this for an hour and a half and and here we are where is here where are we this is the Rio Grande and that's Mexico that's Mexico right there right there 20 feet away bill Addington's family is ranched here for generations Trump's wall would cut through his land block access to the river slash the value of his property and rip him apart it really does break my heart that it's that Americans have come so far as to to be so much in fear and summon some of them in hate against people that have been our neighbors here for a long time add more Border Patrol agency says drones even but not a wall no way no how building wall over this against the will of the people that live here such as me will come over my dead body to be on remember the town of Roma where those migrants were caught in the bushes along the riverbank even here there's opposition for Trump's wall here abandoned lifejackets discarded clothing and medicine left in the fanny pack for those who cross highlight migrants are a daily reality but say those who live here they don't have weapons there they don't come here trying to damage us they have the American Dream and I don't think a wall will be enough to stop them from searching for a better life they're not really bad people they're just trying to make a living you know I mean like I just think that he should at least let them give him a chance for that you know like I honestly think that it's it's not really fair just up the river the existing wall has left a kind of no man's land this field is north of the border but south of the fence and it splits a Texas golf course from the rest of the state where for all the naysayers we met we found some who say to trump one year later legal immigrants are fine illegals build that wall you don't know who they are there could be a murderer they could be a drug dealer they could be a kidnapper they could be anything I mean it's just stupid not to know who's coming across your border it's stupid your stupid country if you let that happen short answer on all of it it's complicated go to the eastern edge of the border this is Brownsville Texas some 3,000 kilometers from those prototypes in San Diego and you can practically walk across the divide but here everyone just kind of lives as Mexicans and Americans always have along the border Paul hunter CBC News Brownsville Texas [Music]

Channel: CBC News: The National

Views: 7,353,064

Keywords: wall, $1.8 billion dollars, Trump, border wall, Mexico, border, Donald Trump, prototypes, San Diego, funding, construction, Paul Hunter, The National, CBC, border security, President Trump, build a wall, illegal immigrant, mexico border wall, $1.6 billion dollars, trump wall, u.s. president donald trump, illegal immigration, Trump wall samples, government shutdown

Id: DzfCZ6W7NeE

Length: 9min 29sec (569 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 04 2017