Illegal crossings at the U.S. southern border are at their lowest levels in decades, prompting a new deterrent measure: painting the entire U.S.-Mexico border wall black. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the plan during a visit to Santa Teresa, New Mexico, saying the black metal will absorb more heat, making the surface too hot to touch and harder to climb, while deep foundations impede digging. U.S. Border Patrol Director Mike Banks said the paint will also help prevent rust. The black-wall idea was previously considered and associated with past cost estimates and new congressional funding to complete construction.
The idea is for the metal structure to absorb more heat, to the point where it becomes too hot to touch. It's tall, which makes it very, very difficult to climb, almost impossible. It also goes deep into the ground, which would make it very difficult, if not impossible, to dig under. And today, we are also going to be painting it black, Noem said during a visit to a section of the wall in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
That is specifically at the request of the president, who understands that in the hot temperatures down here, when something is painted black, it gets even warmer, and it will make it even harder for people to climb, Noem added. She even brought a roller to help with the painting. U.S. Border Patrol Director Mike Banks, who attended the event with Noem, noted that the black paint would also help prevent rust.
Painting the border wall is an idea Trump considered during his first term, when he made the territorial barrier a central axis of his immigration policy and pushed for the construction of hundreds of miles of it at all costs. At that time, he also wanted the structure to be black, a design change that was estimated to cost $500 million in 2020, according to government contracts obtained by The Washington Post.
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