What Is Bollard Fencing? Trump Has Golfing Plans After Wall Emergency Announcement

A border security bill was passed by the Senate and House of Representatives on Thursday and headed to President Donald Trump’s desk, where he is expected to sign it into law but also at the same time declare a national emergency in order to obtain further funding for the bollard-style fencing.

The 1,159 pages-long bill that was drafted by a bipartisan committee provides $1.4 billion for 55 miles of bollard fencing and an overall $1.7 billion increase in spending for the Department of Homeland Security. Although the bill falls far short of Trump’s requested spending budget of $5.7 billion for the wall, and the president said he was “not happy” about the proposal, he was urged by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Congressional Republicans to accept the deal in order to avoid another government shutdown, Vox reported.

Bollard fencing

Although Trump had called for a concrete wall to be constructed at the U.S.-Mexico border in his election campaigning days, he later amended to describing the wall as “steel slats.” What he referred to was the bollard-style fencing – a type of construction that was already in use along the border.

“A steel-bollard style wall provides significant impedance and denial capability. These are hollow steel beams that are filled with concrete and rebar. The space between the bollards satisfies a visibility requirement,” according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website.

In a 2010 article, Popular Mechanics said the “the fence style the average person is most likely to encounter” and it was not so much a wall as a barrier. “They’re the stubby, concrete-filled barriers that protect office buildings and shopping malls across the U.S. The bollard’s sole purpose is to prevent vehicles from crashing through. Wildlife, whose habitat often spans both sides of the border, can easily pass. So can people,” it read.

Aaron Hull, the chief of the Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, said in a news conference in April 2018 that he supported Trump’s description of the structure as a “wall.” “I’ve worked in the Border Patrol in four sectors and up at headquarters. I’ve heard physical barrier referred to by a lot of terms. The wall that we’re putting in place is accurately described as a wall because it’s a very serious structure. You’re talking, like you said, 18 feet, 5-foot anti-climbing plate, concrete-filled with rebar, 6 feet into the ground, another two feet of concrete underneath that. Sir, it’s very much a wall and we’re going to use it to stop illegal entries,” he said.

Trump going golfing

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders posted the White House’s stance on the border wall bill on her Twitter page Thursday:

Around the same time, a report of the president’s whereabouts following the declaration of the national emergency was leaked from the press secretary’s office, according to which Trump planned to take a trip to Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday. The report received a number of reactions from outraged social media users: