The shape of the new border fence

LA Times:

A crew of U.S. Border Patrol agents, sweating under a hot Texas sun, squared off against an array of formidable-looking frontier fences.

They swung axes at posts, used blowtorches to melt steel, tore through sheet metal with crow bars and scaled walls with ladders.

Government engineers working with the agents rammed remote-control SUVs loaded with 10,000 pounds of sand into the barricades at 40 mph.

The agents drew on secrets learned from smugglers. The engineers had decades of expertise designing defenses for nuclear stockpiles.

Together, in a nine-week project called Fence Lab, they were trying to solve one of the nation's most vexing problems -- how to find fencing strong enough to protect the U.S. from one of the largest human migrations in history but sensitive to the fact that Mexico and the U.S. are friendly nations.

Consider the government's requirements.

The fence must be formidable but not lethal; visually imposing but not ugly; durable but environmentally friendly; and economically built but not flimsy.

"It's not that simple," said Collin Sloan, whose company was among those submitting designs to Fence Lab. Sloan has studied guard towers, machine guns and razor wire at border defenses around the world.

"Other countries are a lot more into intimidation," he said. "This is the only humane border fence being constructed."

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A friendly fence? Why not? The most important criteria is that it inhibits crossing except through regulated areas. That second paragraph has to be a real shock to the truthers who claim that fire cannot melt steel. That claim is tied to their belief that the Twin Towers were destroyed from the inside by rigged explosives. I am sure there will be nuts along the border too.