Migrants scoff at Trump's wall and promise to go over it

Tijuana, Mexico -- With breathtaking arrogance, Eladio Sanchez made it clear that he isn't going to let a little border wall stop him from coming into the United States if he wants to.

Sanchez has seen the

eight border wall prototypes near his house in Tijuana. At age 30, he has already sneaked across the border several times and believes that Trump's eventual wall will have about as much an effect on stopping illegal migration as Flex Seal tape would have had on stopping the Titanic from sinking.

Speaking from his home, he pointed to the only wall with an angular barrier at the top, a concrete structure built by Texas Sterling Construction Company, saying that it might slow him down a bit more than the others, but like yo man, no problemo. "You can get over it anyway," he told AFP.

"It's just a little more complicated. But people are always looking for a way to get over--out of necessity, not because we want to."

Which says a lot about Mexico.

Not a prototype

President Trump's visit to the prototypes may look like symbolic slaps to the face after he called some Mexican immigrants "criminals" and "rapists." That probably wasn't the smartest thing to say and it has hurt relationships between our two countries.

Each 30 foot tall prototype costs $300,000 to $500,000 each. To cover about 2,000 miles of border, it will cost taxpayers up to $20 billion, although Trump still insists that Mexico will pay for it.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto canceled plans (for the second time) to visit Washington recently over this issue.

"He firmly repeated what all Mexicans have always said: We will never pay for a wall on the border," said Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray.

Approximately 11 million illegal aliens live in the USA, many of them Mexican or other Latino. "They are the proof that it's possible to get through. More Mexicans are getting through all the time," said Sergio Tamai, founder of the immigrant advocacy group Angels Without Borders.

"The desert. The mountains. Human traffickers. You can't take away that desire to cross to the other side. That desire to build a better life for your family is such a strong, powerful energy."

It sure beats making your own country a better place to live.

"Everything is more difficult with Trump. He's really racist," says Carmelo Alfaro, 56, a former gardener in San Francisco and a member of the Mexican race. 

Alfaro was deported recently for disregarding the sovereignty of the USA and refusing to wait in line to obtain legal residency and eventually citizenship, like many before him.

But that isn't how liberals see his "plight."



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