Thread by @kurteichenwald

1. A disgusting element of border-wall shutdown: Trump has done NOTHING to determine WHERE a wall should be, if its the best option for security, what engineering should be, etc.

Someone has done part of that work: The conservative @Heritage Foundation. Their answer?...

@Heritage 2...a wall should be only a small part of a much larger border security effort, one where specific locations are selected as needing a barrier, for VERY specific reasons. The idea of a full-border wall is considered nonsense.

Now, how is Heritage saying this when it runs....

@Heritage 3...against the current political currents? There was a time when Heritage was simply the generation of conservative policy analysis, and not an outgrowth of the GOP and Fox. This comes from that time - 2009. Today, God knows what politicized Heritage would say. But let's....

@Heritage 4...look at what they say. And the answer is pretty clear: Everything that the Trump Administration has done runs counter to what the conservative Heritage Foundation experts on border security recommended. Everything.

So when they equate "a wall" with border security...

@Heritage 5...remind them: This ONLY became the "solution" when empty-headed fist pumpers, led by a man who knows nothing, decided a wall was the best answer. THIS is why Trump has refused to do the basic engineering, and the GOP has refused to hold hearings on best options for border....

@Heritage 6...security. Because only a group of hacks would conclude that the wall is the best answer. Its nonsense. This is like knowingly convicting the wrong man for the crime - if we want to find the guilty, we can't waste time on the innocent. If you want border security, you can't...

@Heritage 7...waste tens of billions on a wall that is far from the best answer.

@Heritage recommends 15 steps to improve border security. Barriers play a very very small role. "The cost makes it important to use fencing only in areas with a low "melting point," the analysis says....

@Heritage 8..."melting point" is the time it takes for someone to cross the border and "melt" into an urban landscape. In desert areas, for example, it is nonsense. Most of the low melting point areas already have a barrier. So, let's look at the experience of building the barrier in...

@Heritage 9...those locations with a low melting point. You know, learn from what actually happens, not from President "I want to go to Mars in my term for ego" Trump. Heritage says border agency "has made considerable progress in constructing border infrastructure, though installation...

@Heritage 10.. has been slowed by dramatic increases in the cost of materials and litigation." You know, those things that pop up in real life. Like if you decide to buy enough steel to line the entire southern border, tons and tons and tons of steel, the price will skyrocket. Then....

@Heritage 11...the endless lawsuits that will follow will drag this out forever. Contrary to Republican opinion, private property owners are not going to turn over their land to the government for a wall.

Heritage is also very clear about the future role of a border wall - it should...

@Heritage 12...be a tiny part of the border security, if it is used at all. This entails getting FORMAL, OFFICIAL notifications from US Customs & Border Protection, based on ANALYSES with EXPERTS as to how much wall is needed, and if it is worth the cost compared to other alternatives....

@Heritage 13...or as Heritage says, "CBP should reassess the cost effectiveness for any additional infrastructure, and Congress should listen to their recommendations." This has not happened yet. Which is to be expected, since this is about a slogan rather than border security. And from...

@Heritage 14...a party that has demonstrated abject incompetence (tax cuts pay for themselves! Close the border to Ebola regardless of if experts says that will make it spread uncontrolled!). This is another "sounds good to me" policy, designed to appeal to fools who think they know.....

@Heritage 15...everthing about border security despite knowing nothing about it. Like me - which is why I read what experts say. Like the report from the Heritage analyst on homeland security.

So what does Heritage recommend, rather than a wall that will take decades, bust the budget...

@Heritage 16...and not work? All of it is effective and comparatively cheap. Not the stuff that lends itself to bumper stickers.

1. Expand training capacities for border agents.
2. Find alternative training avenues to speed up training.
3. Use contractors to provide more manpower....

@Heritage 17....

4. Ensuring that SBInet is fully funded. Now, this one requires a moment break. Probably zero members of Cult45 - and probably not Trump, Coulter or Rush - even know what SBInet is. SBInet is designed to bring new technologies and capabilities to support the work of...

@Heritage 18...Border patrol agents. It deploys a combination of both infrastructure and technology, such as cameras, radars, sensors, and towers, along 387 miles of border, with the goal of creating a "virtual fence" to help border agents detect people as they try to cross the border....

@Heritage 19...among border security experts (like at Heritage) SBInet is considered the most effective means of border security. That is why Trump proclaimed "I know more about technology than anyone" when he blew off recommendations of programs within SBInet (they didn't call it that)...

@Heritage 20....by the border experts. Such effective programs would not give him something to photograph, stand by, get applause for, put his name on. It would just be, you know, effective. And inexpensive.....

@Heritage 21...So why is the BEST option recommended by the experts always struggling to get financed? Come on...you can guess. Just think about it. The GOP controlled Congress for awhile....

THEY KEEP TAKING MONEY FROM SBInet - WHICH WORKS! - TO FINANCE A WALL THAT DOESNT!!....

@Heritage 22..yup. You heard that right. The GOP obsession with a simplistic solution that can be voiced on Fox News has DAMAGED border security. Fox viewers don't have the time to say "Fully finance SBInet & launch proper technology...(trails off)" when they can say "BUILD THAT WALL!"...

@Heritage 23...so make absolutely no mistake. We know what is supposed to be done. A wall is not it. But that is simple to understand, even though - like saying "close the borders to keep people with Ebola out - the experts say it worsens what you are trying to fix.....

@Heritage 24...now, let's return to Heritage, and what it says should be done. We just finished item 4. They have not mentioned a wall yet.

5. Reform congressional oversight of DHS
6. Encourage private-sector investment in border infrastructure. (This does not mean wall.)...

@Heritage 25....

7. Promote participation in 287 (g). Now, again, if you are a "BUILD THAT WALL!!" type and don't know what 287-g is, you are ignorant of the actual issues here. It allows DHS to deputize selected state and local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immig law...

@Heritage 26...not all states that should have a role in 287 g do have such a role. That means huge resources of manpower are not available. Why? Because rather than pushing 287g, we are wasting time on a wall...

8. Expand Border Enforcement Security Taskforces (BEST) to include 287g....

@Heritage 27...that is complex to explain in a tweet. Suffice to say, it is not a wall. And it would be effective.

9. Require DHS and the Department of Defense to encourage border states to form volunteer, trained State Defense Forces....

@Heritage 28...

10. Provide funds to establish a system of accreditation and standards for SDFs.
11. Collaborate with states to create legal-guide pamphlets.
12. Expand the Merida Initiative. - again, a break to explain. Merida is joint program between the Mexican going and USA to....

@Heritage 29...use law enforcement to go after organized crime and drug cartels. We have been letting this slide under Trump, because we are spending so much effort on the wall.

Here is my favorite Heritage recommendation to improve border security:

13. Leave NAFTA alone. Oops....

@Heritage 30...

14. Fully fund the Coast Guard. You know, those folks working without pay.
15. Allow flexibility with homeland security grants.

Read 'em. 15 means of creating strong border security, from a mega-conservative think tank. AND NO WALL!....

@Heritage 31...why? Is Heritage full of "libtards"? Do they "hate America"? Are they clamoring for "open borders"?

No. Like the democrats today, they were not willing to arrest the wrong man just so there could be cheers from the mob. EFFECTIVE border security is not going to be....

@Heritage 32...EFFECTIVE political slogans and bumper stickers. There is NOTHING that speaks to how much the GOP truly does not give a damn about border security than their insistence on a wall.....

@Heritage 33...Wouldn't you think, if the GOP cared about border security, they would spend time and effort trying to find what are the best options? Rather than just settling on the ones that get pulses racing among the uninformed....

@Heritage 34...the bottom line: The only way this insane shutdown is about border security is because the democrats are trying to stop the GOP from blowing $50 billion on a boondoggle that is the least effective means of security - leaving us unable to afford others.

Done.

@Heritage 35...and for the idiots....

No, the wall not going to cost $5.7 bill. That is the number Trump pulled out of his butt as the amount they "need" to build the first segment, even though there are no contracts, no bids, no engineering. It is a fiction. TOTAL cost a min of $49 bill.