BORDER/MEXICO/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WALL: “On a dusty patch of land surrounded by a chain-link fence near the border here, workers this week began shoveling ground for a large-scale prototype for a border wall with Mexico.
The eight different models of President Trump’s promised wall will range from 18 to 30 feet tall. Four will be made of concrete and four will use ‘other materials.’ They are being built in a carefully protected area not far from a field, where, decades ago, Mexican migrants once openly gathered before crossing into the United States illegally.
But in many ways a preview for a wall, and what it can and cannot accomplish, has been here for nearly two decades. Stretching roughly 20 miles along the southern edge of California and into the Pacific Ocean are two layers of steel and concrete, the toughest barrier in the country.
The state has long been at the center of the debate over how to stop illegal immigration from Mexico and Central America. Now, the rest of the country is once again turning to the region that has long grappled with border security to see what the future of enforcement might look like.
And despite California’s role as the epicenter for opposition to Mr. Trump, the administration apparently never considered placing the models of a would-be wall anywhere else.”
-Jennifer Medina, “For a Preview of the Border Wall, Look to California,” The New York Times online, Sept. 27, 2017