Donald Trump's presidency has been mired in controversy since before he was even elected, and the border wall is a big part of that controversial legacy.  A key feature of his campaign, (which later led to one of the longest furloughs in American political history, as he tried to hold Congress to ransom for the funding) the border wall has been the subject of intense scrutiny ever since.  Shortly after the design was announced there were videos appearing online of children scaling replicas of the construction, proving that the supposedly impenetrable wall wasn't as robust as Trump would have you believe.

 

There are continuing issues with land purchase for the construction, and in recent high winds a section of the wall blew down into Mexico, leaving the border wide open.  Now, further issues are appearing with illegal immigrants easily able to scale and cross the wall, without being noticed by border patrols.  One technique that requires no climbing is to cut sections of the rebar-style wall out, creating an easy route through.  The sections can then be slotted back in seamlessly making these holes very hard to spot.  It was around this time last year that we brought you the news of daring ladder users scaling the wall, plus our picks of our range of ladders that would be suited to the job and this method has been adapted to make it more difficult to spot.  Most recently, people smugglers and migrants have been using makeshift ladders made from rebar, the same material that forms much of the wall, to climb over it.

 

Rebar is the twisted metal component of reinforced concrete but can be used as a cheap building material in its own right, as it has been here.  The material can be purchased very cheaply at any building supplies outlet for around $5, and is relatively easy to work with.  Ladders are being made from the material with a hook style construction at the top, this attaches over the top of the wall in the same way a grappling hook secures a rope.  People can then climb up to the top, hook the ladder over the other side and use it to climb down into America.  The factor which makes these rebar ladders more of a threat to border security than the other types of ladder that have been used in the past, is that the ladders blend into the wall and are very hard to spot unless you scrutinise each part of the wall up close. 

 

Since the wall went up the number of unaccompanied adult migrants, who are the most likely users of the rebar ladder method, has doubled compared to the same period before the wall went up; leading to the conclusion that the border wall has actually made it easier to cross over undetected.  It remains to be seen how America will deal with this new influx of illegal immigrants, and in a year when candidates are competing for the presidency this could be very damaging to Trump's campaign, unless he decries these reports as “fake news”.