Forget the wall; razor wire is now being used

Forget, for the moment, about Donald Trump’s wall. What the heck is going on with Donald Trump’s concertina wire?

The good people of Nogales would certainly like to know.

It seems they don’t appreciate their latest downtown redevelopment project, courtesy of the U.S. military.

Coil upon coil upon coil of fleshslicing razor wire. The sort of stuff you’d find in a war zone, or around a concentration camp or a maximumsecurity prison ...

Or now, dripping from top to bottom of the 18-foot U.S.-Mexico border fence that runs through downtown Nogales.

Last month, there was just one coil running along the top of the two-story fence, installed before the midterm elections. Nogales Mayor Arturo Garino told the Associated Press that he asked Sen. Martha McSally when she was in town last month to help the city get rid of it.

Instead, over the weekend, troops strung five additional coils, layer after lay of barbed steel covering the fence from top to bottom in places.

It’s dangerous, running, as it does, right down to the ground in close proximity to business and residential areas.

It’s overkill, in that while Trump warns that the border is a “very dangerous area,” Nogales really isn’t. It’s also incredibly silly, as the Arizona Daily Star’s excellent columnist, Tim Steller, notes:

“East of Nogales, in the Kino Springs area, troops have put up concertina wire on the border fence within yards of where the fence stops at the Santa Cruz River floodplain. It makes no sense, because nobody would try to jump the border fence, with or without concertina wire, when they can walk 25 yards to the side and cross through a vehicle barrier — the only type of barrier that will stand when the river floods.”

Then again, this isn’t about practicality. It’s about politics.

Laying out coil upon coil of galvanized steel concertina wire is a crowd pleaser in Trumpland. Plus, it gives the troops on the border something to do.

The Nogales City Council on Wednesday evening unanimously passed a resolution demanding that the concertina wire be removed, saying they don’t wish to live in a war zone.

“Placing coiled concertina wire strands on the ground is typically only found in a war, battlefield or prison setting, and not in an urban setting such as downtown Nogales, Arizona,” it said. “Placing coiled concertina wire that is designed to inflict serious bodily injury or death in the immediate proximity of our residents, children, pets, law enforcement and first re-

sponders is not only irresponsible but inhuman.”

Don’t look for the wire to come down. U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it’s on federal land and outside the city’s jurisdiction.

“Hardening of current infrastructure specifically in high-risk locations of the urban area help reduce the illicit activity, to include violent criminals, in these areas and increase the public safety,” the agency said in a statement.

Mayor Garino told the Washington

that he met Wednesday with Customs and Border Protection officials, who waxed on about “rapists, murderers and drug dealers.”

“But that was strange, because the police chief, assistant chief and deputy city manager were there, and we don’t know of those things happening,” Garino said. “I don’t know where they’re getting their stats.”

From Donald Trump, probably. No longer, apparently, is it enough to have just a wall. Now we need coil upon coil of concertina wire as well. What’s next, electrification? Moats and alligators, anybody?