Donald Trump Shrugs Off Reports That Smugglers Are Sawing Through Border Wall: ‘You Can Cut Through Anything’

Donald Trump dismissed reports on Saturday that smugglers were sawing through the U.S.-Mexico border wall using household tools. According to Politico, the president was speaking with reporters at the White House when he shrugged off the idea that people were easily compromising the wall that he has declared to be the “Rolls Royce” of border security.

“We have a very powerful wall. But no matter how powerful, you can cut through anything, in all fairness. But we have a lot of people watching. You know cutting — cutting is one thing, but it’s easily fixed. One of the reasons we did it the way we did it, it’s very easily fixed. You put the chunk back in,” Trump said.

Trump’s statement is in contradiction to the many promises he has made over the years to create a border wall that is nearly impossible to penetrate.

As The Inquisitr previously reported, The Washington Post revealed on Saturday that Mexican smugglers were using easily-obtained $100 cordless reciprocating saws to cut through the steel and concrete and pass drugs and people through the opening. Smugglers breach the opening by cutting through the bollard at the top, a process that takes only a few minutes, according to the report.

After a breach occurs, government welding crews come back and replace the breached section. However, not all openings are readily identifiable. Some smugglers use putty to return the cut piece into place to make it look like it hadn’t been cut, making it difficult for welding crews to identify the breached areas.

President Trump on report parts of border wall have been sawed through: "I hadn't heard that. We have a very powerful wall, but no matter how powerful, you can cut through anything." pic.twitter.com/eza4h0m8GU

— The Hill (@thehill) November 3, 2019

Some parts of the wall feature electronic sensors that alarm when vibrations are sensed, though they haven’t been put in all areas. In those cases, some smugglers use ladders to climb over the wall and ropes to drop down the other side. Trump has previously stated that his border wall – a key component of his campaign in 2016 – would be difficult to scale. So far, Trump has built 76 miles of new fencing and has promised to build 450 new miles by the end of next year.

Former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Ronald Vitiello said that the wall is intended to deter and slow smugglers, but nothing is fool-proof.

“The bollards are not the most evolved design; they are the most evolved that we could pay for,” said Vitiello. “We never said they would be an end-all, be-all.”

There is no indication of how many such breaches have occurred.