I’m cracking up over the fact that smugglers have breached Trump’s border wall more than 3,000 times over the past three years.

It’s true. The $15 billion wall, which Trump claimed over and over again that Mexico would pay for, “is no match for a $15 hand saw.”

Even cheaper tools probably would have poked holes in it.

The jaw-dropping discovery came courtesy of The Washington Post, which detailed the cracks and breaches along the supposedly impenetrable wall with Mexico.

The Post’s scoop, based on unpublished data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, also showed that the government spent $2.6 million to repair the breaches during fiscal years 2019 to 2021.

“Smuggling gangs typically cut the barrier with inexpensive power tools widely available at retail hardware stores, including angle grinders and demolition saws,” the Post reported.

The fact that smugglers are easily breaching the expensive border wall isn’t a laughing matter.

What’s laughable is the parade of conservative Arizonans running for governor, U.S. Senate and other seats tripping over each other to snap pictures of themselves or record videos with the border wall as a backdrop.

Every one of them, from Kari Lake to Blake Masters to Matt Salmon to Mark Brnovich to Karrin Taylor Robson, are promising to either finish the wall or miraculously secure our southern border with Mexico.

What are they going to say now? 

They’ll still blame President Joe Biden for smugglers’ audacity to cut through the barrier, though they did it under Trump, too.

And they’ll perhaps say that America needs to build an bigger and more “beautiful” wall than the world has even seen to stop the “invasion” of hungry men, women and children fleeing their violent or impoverished countries.

Whatever they say, you can bet they’ll say it pacing along the wall or pointing to it.

And if they’re truly lucky, their camera might, just might, catch a glimpse of the smugglers’ hand-sawing through the fence bollards that cost American taxpayers billions of dollars.

But hey, maybe the Arizona steel that Kari Lake promised to use to finish the wall can keep “bad hombres,” as Trump called Mexicans, out. 

Elvia Díaz is an editorial columnist for The Republic and azcentral. Reach her at 602-444-8606 or elvia.diaz@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter, @elviadiaz1. 

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