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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Guy Who Spent $30 Million Building Trump's Wall Is Looking for Buyers
To get to Tommy Fishers private border wall in Texas, I drive south from the city of McAllen, then west on Military Road, past a chunk of redundant, abandoned federal border wall, and from there onto a dirt path through a sugar cane farm down to the Rio Grande. When I arrive, Fisher is waiting, wearing a Western-style plaid shirt, wraparound sunglasses, and a mesh baseball cap featuring his companys logo. Hes 51 years old, with an ursine build and a disarmingly gentle voice.
By trade a builder of more prosaic infrastructure, such as dams and freeways, Fisher greets me by launching into a baffling sermon on his walls technical specifications. Mostly what I perceive is that were at its very edge, meaning we could theoretically walk around it and swim 100 yards to Mexico. Across the river, near the city of Reynosa, which has lately been wracked by unusually intense cartel violence, is a park with wooden docks and straw-roofed gazebos. Beyond the park, according to Fisher, is at least one cartel stash house, where drugs or people are stowed before being smuggled to America. As I poke around, Fisher says, Make yourself at home.
There are two private-sector border walls attempting to separate Mexico from the U.S., and Fisher Sand & Gravel Co. has built them both. The first, erected in the summer of 2019, is nestled in a mountainous half-mile stretch of New Mexico. The secondthis oneis more ambitious. Completed last year, its about a 90-minute drive from the Gulf of Mexico, under the low, heavy skies of South Texas Rio Grande Valley. The structure is 3 miles long, hugging a severe bend in the river, and consists of roughly 15,000 18-foot-tall gray steel bollards, spaced 5 inches apart and set in a wide concrete foundation. (In this sense its more like a fence, but for simplicitys sake Ill mainly call it a wall.) Up close, one can easily see between the bollards. From a distance they appear to be a contiguous, glinting slab of sheet metal.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-07-22/trump-border-wall-builder-tommy-fisher-is-looking-for-a-buyer?utm_medium=social&cmpid=socialflow-twitter-businessweek&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_content=businessweek&utm_source=twitter
By trade a builder of more prosaic infrastructure, such as dams and freeways, Fisher greets me by launching into a baffling sermon on his walls technical specifications. Mostly what I perceive is that were at its very edge, meaning we could theoretically walk around it and swim 100 yards to Mexico. Across the river, near the city of Reynosa, which has lately been wracked by unusually intense cartel violence, is a park with wooden docks and straw-roofed gazebos. Beyond the park, according to Fisher, is at least one cartel stash house, where drugs or people are stowed before being smuggled to America. As I poke around, Fisher says, Make yourself at home.
There are two private-sector border walls attempting to separate Mexico from the U.S., and Fisher Sand & Gravel Co. has built them both. The first, erected in the summer of 2019, is nestled in a mountainous half-mile stretch of New Mexico. The secondthis oneis more ambitious. Completed last year, its about a 90-minute drive from the Gulf of Mexico, under the low, heavy skies of South Texas Rio Grande Valley. The structure is 3 miles long, hugging a severe bend in the river, and consists of roughly 15,000 18-foot-tall gray steel bollards, spaced 5 inches apart and set in a wide concrete foundation. (In this sense its more like a fence, but for simplicitys sake Ill mainly call it a wall.) Up close, one can easily see between the bollards. From a distance they appear to be a contiguous, glinting slab of sheet metal.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-07-22/trump-border-wall-builder-tommy-fisher-is-looking-for-a-buyer?utm_medium=social&cmpid=socialflow-twitter-businessweek&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_content=businessweek&utm_source=twitter
When you fall for a con artist, don't be surprised when you get conned.
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The Guy Who Spent $30 Million Building Trump's Wall Is Looking for Buyers (Original Post)
Initech
Jul 2021
OP
Big River. But I was under the impression that most of it had been diverted by the US
captain queeg
Jul 2021
#4
captain queeg
(10,187 posts)1. The rio grande is a lot bigger there than I imagined.
PJMcK
(22,035 posts)2. Do you know what the river's name means? (n/t)
captain queeg
(10,187 posts)4. Big River. But I was under the impression that most of it had been diverted by the US
By the time it got to Mexico. Of course I dont really know where that happens.
Vinca
(50,269 posts)3. Wonder why he doesn't ask a certain orange "billionaire" to invest in his project. LOL.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,956 posts)5. He should talk to that guy from Nigeria
All he has to do is provide his bank account and routing numbers.