# If Trump built a wall how hard would it actually be to climb over **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 1, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-trump-built-a-wall-how-hard-would-it-actually-be-to-climb-over/761494 "2016-08-01T20:44:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-trump-built-a-wall-how-hard-would-it-actually-be-to-climb-over/761494/41 "2016-08-04T16:45:49Z")
So then Kim Jong-Un can challenge us with Reagan’s own words? Awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-trump-built-a-wall-how-hard-would-it-actually-be-to-climb-over/761494/42 "2016-08-04T17:16:49Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > Yeah, I’m thinking the Iron Curtain in Europe was manned with military grade machine guns and anyone seen in no-man’s-land would be quickly dead. The Berlin wall was only 96 miles long. The US/Mexico border is about 20X that. A difficult-to-breach wall that length would be awfully expensive, but 24/7 staffing of gunners’ nests at 1/4-mile intervals along the wall would be even more so. Just paying their salaries and benefits would come to several hundred million dollars per year. I like the land mines idea: buy once, then set and forget. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-trump-built-a-wall-how-hard-would-it-actually-be-to-climb-over/761494/43 "2016-08-04T17:24:26Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > The Berlin wall was only 96 miles long. The US/Mexico border is about 20X that. Post #6. Mine. 1,989 miles of the border. So 4,000 gun towers? What, couple of divisions? I say we draft all the chickenhawks and fat out of shape wannabees who play “militia” and make them man that border. And of course, we could do this without becoming the totalitarian enemy we’ve always railed against, right? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5ac83/32.png) [@The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mad_Hermit)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-trump-built-a-wall-how-hard-would-it-actually-be-to-climb-over/761494/44 "2016-08-04T17:49:31Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Cover that whole wall with one really bad looking hair piece and no one will get near the damn thing. > > Reminds me of the Robot Chicken skit where Donalds Toupee when out did various nefarious things at night. Are you talking about this one? In this case it was Shatner, not Trump: [I’ts Not Easy…](http://www.adultswim.com/videos/robot-chicken/its-not-easy-being-william-shatner/) ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-trump-built-a-wall-how-hard-would-it-actually-be-to-climb-over/761494/45 "2016-08-04T19:15:07Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > . . . > > I like the land mines idea: buy once, then set and forget. Two words - herd of sheep. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-trump-built-a-wall-how-hard-would-it-actually-be-to-climb-over/761494/46 "2016-08-04T19:39:54Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Two words - herd of sheep. How many poor desperate Mexicans can afford to buy an entire herd of sheep with the expectation of never being able to sell them? Maybe a few, and they’ll get through, but that’ll be a big improvement over the status quo. The condition of the minefields could be monitored remotely with seismometers. Maybe one every ten miles, all transmitting signals to one remote office, would allow the operator to accurately identify the site of a detonation and send out a team to pick up the pieces and lay new mines. Surely this would be cheaper than an army of several thousand snipers. ---
**Author:** ![Chihuahua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Chihuahua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chihuahua)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-trump-built-a-wall-how-hard-would-it-actually-be-to-climb-over/761494/47 "2016-08-04T21:54:28Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > I do not know what they are, and neither does Wikipedia. Link? [http://www.citylab.com/politics/2011/12/evolving-fence-us-mexico-border/635/](http://www.citylab.com/politics/2011/12/evolving-fence-us-mexico-border/635/) Just big metal poles with a four inch gap between them. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-trump-built-a-wall-how-hard-would-it-actually-be-to-climb-over/761494/48 "2016-08-04T22:49:42Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Who’s in favor of it? > > 😉 As a practical matter? Millions of people are in favor of illegal immigration. Or, if you prefer, millions of people oppose doing anything substantial to keep illegal aliens from getting in or kicking out the ones already here. Those millions include both liberal Democrats who sympathize with poor Mexicans and rich Republicans who like cheap labor. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2016, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-trump-built-a-wall-how-hard-would-it-actually-be-to-climb-over/761494/49 "2016-08-04T23:41:07Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > I like the land mines idea: buy once, then set and forget. And the USA never signed the [Ottawa Treaty](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_Treaty), so you’re in the clear legally! ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-trump-built-a-wall-how-hard-would-it-actually-be-to-climb-over/761494/50 "2016-08-05T06:46:42Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > The condition of the minefields could be monitored remotely with seismometers. Maybe one every ten miles, all transmitting signals to one remote office, would allow the operator to accurately identify the site of a detonation and send out a team to pick up the pieces and lay new mines. > > Surely this would be cheaper than an army of several thousand snipers. Didn’t work out very well in Vietnam, but hey, there was nothing to learn there. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-trump-built-a-wall-how-hard-would-it-actually-be-to-climb-over/761494/51 "2016-08-05T07:54:46Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > How many poor desperate Mexicans can afford to buy an entire herd of sheep with the expectation of never being able to sell them? > > Maybe a few, and they’ll get through, but that’ll be a big improvement over the status quo. The immigrants wouldn’t: the coyotes would. They already make a living fleecing human beings, adding a few lambs to the mix is just logical. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-trump-built-a-wall-how-hard-would-it-actually-be-to-climb-over/761494/52 "2016-08-05T12:03:17Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Keep in mind this is 2016. Why can’t someone just throw a rope ladder over it? Or failing that a regular ladder? :dubious: What does 2016 have to do with it? Are rope and ladders cutting-edge technological innovations that weren’t possible a few years ago? ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-trump-built-a-wall-how-hard-would-it-actually-be-to-climb-over/761494/53 "2016-08-05T13:22:09Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > The Berlin wall was only 96 miles long. The US/Mexico border is about 20X that. A difficult-to-breach wall that length would be awfully expensive, but 24/7 staffing of gunners’ nests at 1/4-mile intervals along the wall would be even more so. Just paying their salaries and benefits would come to several hundred million dollars per year. > > I like the land mines idea: buy once, then set and forget. Woah … that sounds cheap … it cost us a trillion a year to fight in Iraq … Eighty billion _a month_ to keep BankAmerica afloat … just a lousy billion a year is less than 1% of the military budget. 10,000 family wage jobs … economic boost to the border region … meets Congress’ demand the border is secure before they consider new immigration legislation … I see nothing but good things coming from this. It would certainly keep US citizens from fleeing into Canada … ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-trump-built-a-wall-how-hard-would-it-actually-be-to-climb-over/761494/54 "2016-08-05T14:15:32Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > As a practical matter? Millions of people are in favor of illegal immigration. Or, if you prefer, millions of people oppose doing anything substantial to keep illegal aliens from getting in or kicking out the ones already here. > > Those millions include both liberal Democrats who sympathize with poor Mexicans and rich Republicans who like cheap labor. Seriously now, consider a slightly wider view of the issue. Do you think the tide of illegal immigration still stop as long as Mexico remains a corrupt narco-state and grinding poverty affects millions of other Central Americans? You could build a damned wall 1 mile high and a half-mile underground and have it go ten miles out to sea on either end and it would not end the illegal immigration of those hoping for a better life in the United States. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-trump-built-a-wall-how-hard-would-it-actually-be-to-climb-over/761494/55 "2016-08-05T15:25:20Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Seriously now, consider a slightly wider view of the issue. Do you think the tide of illegal immigration still stop as long as Mexico remains a corrupt narco-state and grinding poverty affects millions of other Central Americans? > > You could build a damned wall 1 mile high and a half-mile underground and have it go ten miles out to sea on either end and it would not end the illegal immigration of those hoping for a better life in the United States. This is so. It’d be cheaper, easier and more effective to 1) come down hard on the employers of illegal immigrants in the US, and 2) make improving conditions in Mexico and elsewhere in Central America a foreign policy priority. You’d get far fewer people wanting/needing to come to the US even without any wall. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-trump-built-a-wall-how-hard-would-it-actually-be-to-climb-over/761494.md?page=2)