Open Borders: NBC Attacks Effectiveness of ‘Any Type of Border Wall’

January 10th, 2019 9:10 PM

Congressional Democrats, like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY), used to be in total support for barriers along the border before President Trump came along. It’s an inconvenient truth the liberal media refused to adequately acknowledge as they blamed Trump for the prolonged government shutdown. On Thursday, NBC Nightly News was in such denial of that truth that they sent correspondent Jacob Soboroff to the border to attack the effectiveness of Trump’s prototypes and the existing fencing.

In 2018, private companies built eight prototype barriers in an effort to score a government contract to build President Trump’s border wall. All eight failed because federal officials were able to breach them; clearly signaling they couldn’t be used.

But according to NBC, those prototypes could be what actually gets built. “This image obtained exclusively by NBC News shows how vulnerable President Trump's wall could be. It's the result of a Department of Homeland Security test ordered by this administration,” Soboroff bitterly declared.

Smearing Trump’s attempt to compromise with Democrats, in which he offered to use border wall funds to build a type of wall they had funded in the past (steel slats), Soboroff conflated one prototype with the existing barrier. “This steel slat prototype sliced with a saw. Critics of President Trump's border policy say no barrier, including steel just like this, will do anything to solve the humanitarian or security crisis,” he claimed as he walked along an existing border fence.

Touting how the President responded to NBC’s slanted reporting during his trip to the border on Thursday, Soboroff chided the fact that previous administrations had used similar designs and insisted on further conflating them. “While previous administrations did use the design, the prototypes were built during the Trump administration,” he said. “All eight were breached during testing.”

 

 

Soboroff seemed skeptical of a statement from the Department of Homeland Security that told him the following: “While the design currently being constructed was informed by what we learned in the prototypes, it does not replicate those designs.”

Further proving NBC’s discontent for border security, Soboroff concluded by proclaiming, “Tonight, more questions about the vulnerability of any type of border wall.”

But the effectiveness of barriers on the border cannot seriously be put in doubt. In a Wednesday appearance on the Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson Tonight, former Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan argued that the media didn’t know what they were talking about.

In an example of the effectiveness of walls, Morgan told Carlson: “The Sheriff of Yuma, Arizona just published an article today, where he talked about in 2005, when they started putting the fence -- the wall up in his area, violent crime, all crime drastically reduced in his area.”

Sure, you’re still going to have determined people that will find ways into America illegally, but a barrier is a deterrent for most. As Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told ABC last year about the effect a barrier has on illegal border crossings: “We need a barrier to help us stop that, to push the traffic into the areas we can control more effectively.”

NBC was basically dismissing the use of a border barrier period.

The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:

NBC Nightly News
January 10, 2019
7:07 p.m. Eastern

JACOB SOBOROFF: I'm Jacob Soboroff at the border. This image obtained exclusively by NBC News shows how vulnerable President Trump's wall could be. It's the result of a Department of Homeland Security test ordered by this administration. Eight prototypes were created to help the President determine what kind of wall to build. Military and Border Patrol were then tasked with breaching them using various tools. The president says his decision was a compromise.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It will be a steel barrier rather than a concrete wall.

SOBOROFF: This steel slat prototype sliced with a saw. Critics of President Trump's border policy say no barrier, including steel just like this, will do anything to solve the humanitarian or security crisis. Before he headed here today, the President disputed that and responded to NBC News' reporting.

TRUMP: Well, that's a wall that was designed by previous administrations.

SOBOROFF: While previous administrations did use the design, the prototypes were built during the Trump administration. All eight were breached during testing. DHS says, “While the design currently being constructed was informed by what we learned in the prototypes, it does not replicate those designs.” Tonight, more questions about the vulnerability of any type of border wall.

Jacob Soboroff, NBC News, Hidalgo, Texas.