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ByFrankBajak The Associated Press LOS EBANOS, TEXAS All along the winding Rio Grande, the people who live in this bustling, fertile re- gion where the U.S. border meets the Gulf of Mexico never quite understood how Donald Trump's great wall could ever be much more than campaign rhetoric. Erecting a concrete bar- rier across the entire 1,954- mile frontier with Mexico, they know, collides head-on with multiple realities: the geology of the river valley, fierce local resistance and the immense cost. An electronically forti- fied "virtual wall" with sur- veillance technology that in- cludes night-and-day video cameras, tethered observa- tion balloons and high-fly- ing drones makes a lot more sense to people here. It's al- ready in wide use and ex- panding. Ifa30-to40-footconcrete wall is a panacea for illegal immigration, as Trump in- sisted during the campaign, the locals are not convinced. And few were surprised when the president-elect seemedtosoftenhisposition five days after the election, sayingthatthewallcouldin- clude some fencing. "The wall is not going to stopanyone,"saidJorgeGar- cia, who expected to lose ac- cess to most of his 30-acre riverside ranch after the U.S. Border Fence Act was en- acted a decade ago. Under the law, 652 miles of border barrier were built, mostly in Arizona. The 110 miles of fences and fortified levees that went up in Texas are not contiguous but bro- ken lines, some as much as a mile and a half from the river. Eight years after govern- mentsurveyorsmarkedGar- cia's land, he and his wife, Aleida, are still waiting to see if the Border Patrol will sever their property. "This lets me know that whenever they want to build the wall, they can," said Aleida, holding up a tax bill that shows the nominally ex- propriated sliver ofproperty. If a fence or wall goes up, the couple will be paid $8,300. So far, the Garcias and the rest of the village of Los Ebanos have been spared because the erosion- prone clay soil is simply too unstable, she believes. Geologyconspiresagainst wall-building up and down the Rio Grande Valley. So does a boundary water treaty with Mexico and en- dangered-species laws. Cat- walks and tunnels had to be built into existing fences to accommodate endangered ocelots and jaguarundi, two species of wild cat. The gaps in the border barrier include an entire flank of the River Bend golf club and resort in Browns- ville. University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley political sci- entist Terence Garrett calls them "gaps of privilege" be- cause many landowners were politically connected. Other landowners fought the Border Patrol in court. "The wall might make mid-America feel safer, but for those of us that live on the border, it's not making us feel any safer when we know that people can go over it, around it, under it and through it," said Mon- ica Weisberg-Stewart, secu- rity expert for the Texas Bor- der Coalition, a consortium of regional leaders. The coalition wants fed- eral dollars to go instead to bolstering security at bor- der crossings, where her- oin, cocaine and metham- phetamine are smuggled in. A poll conducted in South- west border cities in May found72percentofresidents opposed to building a wall. The Cronkite News-Univi- sion-Dallas Morning News poll had a margin of error of 2.6 percentage points. The wall is popular in dis- tant cities "because you can see, feel and touch it. But po- litically it just doesn't make sense," said J.D. Salinas, the coalition's chairman. As commissioner of the border county of Hidalgo from 2007 to 2009, Salinas won public backing for 20 miles of border barrier by reinforcing an existing le- vee with concrete and top- ping it with a fence. In 2010, the project paid off. The le- vee held back flooding from Hurricane Alex. The cost wasabout$10millionamile, though. IntheNov.8election,only three Texas border counties — all sparsely populated — wentfor Trump.Therestare solidly Democratic, at odds with the Republicans who control most state capitals and have been demanding more border barriers. Rural ranchers worried about drug traffickers and other criminals are less likely to benefit from border walls and fences than city- dwellers,saidAdamIsacson, a security expert with the nonprofit advocacy group Washington Office on Latin America. "What a wall ulti- mately does is slow a border crosser for 10 to 15 minutes," Isacson said. "In an urban area, that 15 minutes is cru- cial." Border patrol agents can arrive quickly. In rural areas, they may be an hour or more away. The U.S. side of the bor- der is quite safe, said Weis- berg-Stewart. "We are not in a war zone." In fact, cross-border trade has been booming. In 2014, more than $246 bil- lion worth of goods and 3.7 million trucks crossed the Texas-Mexico border, ac- cording to coalition figures. Trump needs to remem- ber that Mexico is the sec- ond-largest U.S. export mar- ket, said Rep. Filemon Vela, aTexasDemocratwhosedis- trictincludesmostoftheval- ley. Only Canada buys more American goods. "There's no way in hell he's going to see his great wall," Vela said. The region bears the usual hallmarks of Ameri- can prosperity: strip malls, well-maintained interstates, prosperous gated commu- nities with hacienda-style McMansions. Cold-stor- age warehouses proliferate for northbound Mexican okra, avocados and toma- toes while other warehouses brim with southbound used clothing. Cotton, grapefruit and corn fields abound. Much of the Mexican side of the border has been af- flicted by drug cartel-re- lated violence, but crime in theRioGrandeValley,which ishometo1.3millionpeople, has been consistently lower than other Texas cities. If lots of "bad hombres" are crossing the border, as Trump has claimed, they are mostly taking their law- breakingelsewhere.Further, there's no record of anyone sneaking across the border to commit acts of terrorism. The Border Patrol's buildup after 9/11 is one reason, argues David Agui- lar, who was named to the agency's top job in 2004 by a fellow Texan, then-President George W. Bush, and is now a private consultant. Since then, the number of agents has climbed from 9,500 on the southwest border to 17,500 in 2015. Meanwhile,thenumberof apprehensionsalongthebor- der is down from a peak of 1.6 million in 2000 — when Aguilarsaidatleastas many gotaway —to409,000inthe year ended in September. Nearly half were caught in the Rio Grande Valley. Many analysts believe the Great Recession was a big- gerfactorthanBorderPatrol enforcement in making the U.S. less attractive to Mex- ican migrants in particular. Since tower-mounted video surveillance cameras began going up in 1999 in the Brownsville area, ille- gal cross-border traffic in the area "dried up by 85 to 90 percent," said Johnny Meadors, the sector's assis- tant chief for technology. He said the traffic moved west, where there were no cameras. Seventy-two more of the towers, which are 80 to 120 feet tall, are to be in- stalled in the valley by 2021, and could include motion sensors and laser pointers, Meadors said. ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION Americans who live near border say Trump's wall is unwelcome ERICGAY—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS A young migrant girl from Central America, newly released a er processing by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, is fitted for shoes at the Sacred Heart Community Center in the Rio Grande Valley border city of McAllen, Texas. This message sponsored by The Daily News and www.redbluffdailynews.com CreativeWaystoHolidayGiftand SHOP LOCAL in Red Bluff and Tehama County! Gift Certificates! • At her favorite hair or nail salon • For a massage • At his favorite restaurant • Her gym membership fees for 2 months • From the movie theater • At the place they board their dog when they travel • At the shop where he gets his car repaired • To get her car waxed and detailed • For future performances at the State Theatre • A membership in Community Concerts You get the idea! Your creativity will surprise and please. And, you'll be supporting our local economy and community in the bargain. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2016 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 5 B