Click here to experience "The Wall: A Special Report from Texas Standard"
The Texas Standard gets a lot of emails: story ideas, feedback - sometimes good, sometimes different. On occasion, we get a call to action.
Dear Texas Standard, My name is Julie Speed and I live in the Big Bend very near the Texas/Mexico border. While driving along the river road we all – no matter what our politics – look out at the land and laugh at the absurdity of the idea of building a wall out here.
Building a wall along the 2,000-mile border between the United States and Mexico was a signature plank of Donald Trump's presidential campaign. His win in November is bringing the reality of that proposal into focus.
The U.S. has 650 miles of existing barrier and Texas has the most border left open.
I keep hearing people from other places taking it seriously … like it’s something that you could do if you wanted to. Could you please do a show on the practical aspects? For example, land condemnation – how many acres would need to be taken over and how much money would that cost? What about wildlife and livestock issues? What would the construction challenges be? And, ultimately, what would the consequences of all that be for Texas?
In this special report, the Standard speaks with local officials, business owners, landowners and residents living and working along the border. We explore how the community in south and west Texas transcends the border. We ask about the logistics of building a wall, what Trump’s proposal means to Mexicans living across the border, how the wall would affect wildlife in the area and what a wall would mean for those working in border protection.
See the full report here.