COCHISE COUNTY, Ariz. — Cattle rancher John Ladd is a big fan of the new border wall that was placed along the U.S.-Mexico border during the Trump administration, but he now has to contend with the rest of the system being incomplete after President Joe Biden ordered a halt on all wall projects.
While most of the 30-foot steel and concrete bollards were constructed before the Biden-ordered stop, the power connection for the light posts was not put in place, resulting in the lights that were built being reduced to nothing more than decoration. Ladd explained when the construction stopped, his ranch, which goes right up to the southern border, started to experience a significant increase in illegal crossings.
"The naysayers come back and say, 'Oh, you got a 30-foot wall, look how many get through.' I say, 'It's incomplete. We got the wall, but the technology is the answer...and then you gotta have boots on the ground.'"
Ladd said Biden ordering a stop on the border wall construction shortly after coming into office was worse than being abandoned because this was a deliberate effort to destabilize the border.
"Sabotage. Abandon is the word with every president up until Trump. Trump actually did some good. And then, as soon as Biden gets in, he just sabotaged it...He's a socialist prick," Ladd said, adding he would never meet with Biden.
Driving alongside the border wall, much of the material that had been staged during construction is still sitting out in the elements, which has been the norm since January. Ladd said he has no idea what the contractors are going to do with materials.
What's worse than the unused construction materials are the parts of the border wall and accompanying infrastructure that were made incomplete with the work stoppage. Drainage systems for when the area gets flooded were left half done, with water erosion now doing its will.
Townhall Media/Julio Rosas
"I've been in favor of a wall for the last 30 years. Before that, it was a barbed wire fence...However tall you want to make it, they're gonna go over it, but it slows you down enough for Border Patrol to get here," Ladd said. "I think this is the best package they've ever come up with, and I don't know if it'll ever be finished or not."
As they say, timing is everything, and in this case, Ladd said the contractors only needed five more weeks to get everything done with what they were hired to do. Ladd is aware the U.S. government will never be able to fully, 100 percent secure the border, but he has no hope for its stability under Biden.
Ladd knows the three ranchers who are on the other side of the wall who have land across from his. He says one of them actively works for the cartel. Nearby, his family's ranch is the small town of Naco, Arizona, which is directly across from Naco, Sonora. The Mexican Naco, like most border towns, is heavily invested in smuggling, with those in American Naco also playing a part. Driving by the port of entry, Ladd pointed out a house that went right up against the border and revealed it is cartel-owned. Every time the wall got higher, so did the cartel house so that scouts could always see above it.
When I went to tour Ladd's ranch in the afternoon on Tuesday, Border Patrol had already apprehended five groups of illegal immigrants on his property before 10:00 in the morning. When it was time for me to leave after a few hours, Border Patrol intercepted another two groups. Due to the heavy foot traffic on the ranch, Ladd doesn't even bother fixing the interior fencing that is designed to keep his cattle in certain areas because "it'll just be broken down the next day."
"You can hire a guy to work 40 hours a week to repair the fences...but in a year, that'll cut into your profits."
