On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “AC360,” CNN Correspondent Rosa Flores stated that while a border wall won’t decrease the number of people who cross, a wall does give authorities “more operational control. It gives them more control of the situation.” And agents in south Texas “say that the wall is very effective.”
Host Anderson Cooper asked, “What have you heard from people about whether the wall actually reduces the number of migrants crossing the border?”
Flores responded, “Well, Anderson, it really does not. The way that federal agents have explained it to me in the past is it helps them get more operational control. In essence, it funnels the traffic so that they can then apply the laws of the United States.”
Flores then showed drone footage from El Paso, TX, of a group of migrants who had turned themselves in to authorities and said, “Well, that’s exactly what that wall is designed to do. It gives them more operational control. It gives them more control of the situation. It helps them control when those migrants are going to be turning themselves in, and also where. That wall has gates and those migrants wait there until transportation arrives and immigration then transports them for processing, for immigration processing.”
She continued that there are certain parts of the border where building a wall wouldn’t be geographically feasible, but that in south Texas, the Rio Grande River “creates a lot of international boundary miles. I talked to agents there who say that the wall is very effective. I think the key here though, Anderson, is that the wall is a tool, but it can’t be the only tool when you talk about border security.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett