One of the great stories about the wall comes from Texas and the sparsely populated 23rd congressional district. It stretches from the suburbs of San Antonio hundreds of miles west to near El Paso. The district is represented by Will Hurd, a Republican. Despite having more than 800 miles of border with Mexico, Hurd opposes a wall, calling it 4th century solution. Hurd, once a CIA undercover officer who served in Pakistan and Afghanistan, is much more into technology.
“[A border wall] is the most expensive, least-effective way to do border security.”
“We shouldn’t be looking at a 4th-century solution to a 21st century problem.” –GOP Representative Will Hurd
FUN FACT: Fully 820 miles of the nearly 2,000-mile US-Mexico border — 41% — is represented by a Republican, Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, who opposes a wall and was just reelected in a tough race in which he emphasized that position.
— Jackie Calmes (@jackiekcalmes) January 4, 2019
Here is Congressman Will Hurd (R) on why the wall doesn’t work. https://t.co/HYcGV50pYQ
— Brandon Russell (@russbrando) January 5, 2019
Hurd is one of seven Republicans in the House to vote with Democrats on ending the government shutdown. From the Texas Standard:
Hurd also breaks with the president and others in his party when it comes to the definition and composition of a border wall. Hurd favors what he calls a “smart wall,” based more on technological solutions than on concrete barriers, though he points out that there’s already a solid barrier along 600 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We need to be thinking about all 2,000 miles of border at the same time,” Hurd says. “It’s myopic to think that every inch or every mile of the border is the same.”
“Hurd says there’s another problem with building a wall on some parts of the border: “In the great state of Texas, we care about a little thing called private-property rights,” Hurd says. “Just in my district alone, some of the plans DHS has would cede $1.1 million of arable land … to Mexico. That’s crazy.”
Hurd is also the only Republican representing any part of the US/Mexico border in the House. Two formerly red districts on the border in Arizona and New Mexico, respectively, flipped blue in the Midterms.
Those who live on the border are represented by 8 Democrats and Will Hurd.
— TheValuesVoter (@TheValuesVoter) January 5, 2019
For an interesting take on advance border security that might actually work, read this story from Wired.