Mexicans unimpressed by models of Trump’s wall

The prototypes of the Trump border wall are taking shape this month in a sun-baked swath of scrubland abutting a run-down neighborhood of Tijuana. 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.

The requirements established to realize President Donald Trump’s vision call for “a fence that is impenetrable, it’s unscalable,” said Roy Villareal, acting chief patrol agent of the San Diego border sector. “They can’t dig under it. They can’t cut through it.”

Even these big warning slabs of concrete, the teeming construction site, and police and helicopters patrolling both sides of the border weren’t enough to stop a half-dozen would-be migrants from hopping the existing fence earlier this month and landing smack in the middle of the project, according to U.S. border officials.

Their experience is suggestive of how many Mexicans feel about Trump’s wall: no matter how it’s built, it’s not going to work.

“People are still going to cross no matter what is there,” said Kevin Avila Rodriguez, 17, who recycles trash and lives near the spot where the border wall prototypes are being built. “This won’t change things much.”

The prototypes are being funded by the Department of Homeland Security. Trump would need congressional approval for funding before any of them could become an actual wall.