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A wall won’t solve America’s border problems | Will Hurd

Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, subtitles, translations, personalized Talk recommendations and more. “Building a 30-foot-high concrete structure from sea to shining sea is the most expensive and least effective way to do border security,” says Congressman Will Hurd, a Republican from Texas whose district encompasses two times zones and shares an…

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“Building a 30-foot-high concrete structure from sea to shining sea is the most expensive and least effective way to do border security,” says Congressman Will Hurd, a Republican from Texas whose district encompasses two times zones and shares an 820-mile border with Mexico. Speaking from Washington, DC in a video interview with former state attorney general Anne Milgram, Hurd discusses the US government’s border policy and its controversial detention and child separation practices — and lays out steps toward a better future at the border. (Recorded at the TED World Theater in New York on September 10, 2019)

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You’re welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request here:

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55 Comments

55 Comments

  1. ITouchTheSky

    October 22, 2019 at 8:30 pm

    Nice speech.

  2. Openminded Guy

    October 22, 2019 at 8:47 pm

    Unbelievable how “Ted Talks” is becoming a leftists socialist platform, sad. I’m sure ya’ll would feel just the same if Mexico’s was bordering Maryland 🙄

    • Kaniner Flagg

      October 22, 2019 at 8:54 pm

      Can’t handle facts?
      Facts don’t make something leftist just because you don’t like it.

    • Princess Kiwi

      October 22, 2019 at 9:13 pm

      Openminded Guy facts dont care about your feelings

    • HARRY BALZAC

      October 22, 2019 at 9:15 pm

      @Kaniner Flagg whats the facts then because this video is very void of facts. If this guy is a Republican then a democrat by his standards would be Joseph Stalin, or Mao

    • HARRY BALZAC

      October 22, 2019 at 9:15 pm

      @Princess Kiwi your feelings must not care about facts

    • Lupercal123

      October 23, 2019 at 8:54 am

      Ironic username my dude.

  3. Adam Mortimer

    October 22, 2019 at 9:25 pm

    Build the wall!

  4. todkapuz

    October 22, 2019 at 9:44 pm

    really is a no-win…. seems every president just makes the problem worse…. and sadly the divide is getting wider…

  5. Pinky jones

    October 22, 2019 at 10:28 pm

    THIS GUY IS A MORON….TELL THE HOMEOWNERS IN SAN DIEGO CALIFORNIA THAT THEY DONT NEED A WALL.

  6. Pinky jones

    October 22, 2019 at 10:29 pm

    tEXANS THIS JERK IS NO REPRESENTATIVE FOR REPUBLICANS THIS MORON IS A DEMOCRAT IN DISGUISE.

  7. Pinky jones

    October 22, 2019 at 10:32 pm

    qUESTION WHY ARE CHILDREN BEING SEPARATED FROM PEOPLE WHO ARE TRAFFICING THEM….

    • R Nickerson

      October 22, 2019 at 10:40 pm

      I’ve got multiple questions:
      1. wHY DID YOU TYPE LIKE THIS?
      2. Can you spell trafficking?
      3. Why do you want the children to stay with the people TRAFFICKING them?
      4. If you’re trying to say that kids should stay with their families, yes that’s a given. But trafficking =/= traveling.

  8. R Nickerson

    October 22, 2019 at 10:35 pm

    Wow… rational, well-spoken, calm, fully coherent ideas from the Right?
    I thought that had died out.

    • R Nickerson

      October 23, 2019 at 1:17 pm

      @KT
      Keep liking your own comments, it makes you look well-received.

    • R Nickerson

      October 23, 2019 at 1:17 pm

      @KT
      Also, learn to take a joke. If you think Trump has ever been any of those adjectives, then you’re as crazy as he is.

    • KT

      October 23, 2019 at 1:32 pm

      @R Nickerson I’m not an american (thank god), so you can keep your far left/right associations to yourself and your peers 🙂 Your political landscape is a trashheap

    • R Nickerson

      October 23, 2019 at 2:26 pm

      @KT
      Yes, I know it is. If anything, my comments should have been at least implying that I already know that.
      I’m not even applying the left and right to you specifically… YOU replied to my comment directed at no one mentioning the right, and then I said if you think the crazy person in charge is coherent and rational, then you’re as crazy as he is.
      That’s not applying my political system to yours, even if we were in the same country. That’s a question of sanity and intelligence regardless of political spectrum.

    • R Nickerson

      October 23, 2019 at 2:26 pm

      @KT
      Also, liking your own comment is dumb and kind of pathetic.

  9. Peter Knopfler

    October 22, 2019 at 10:51 pm

    Will Hurd the turd in the pool. USA 748 Billion dollar war budget . Your Tax money over 60% goes to bullshit military adventures. boots on the ground in 172 countries and America is scared. USA over 1000 military bases world-wide Scared Stupid USA. USA first to kill nukes to Drones and USA scared USA sanctions 30 countries and 54 nations willing to torture for Yankee Dollar and Americans are stuck on stupid. You have no enemies, stop the bullshit.

  10. Divergent Droid

    October 22, 2019 at 11:03 pm

    It’s a two fold problem. The laws need to be changed and the wall needs to be built. Anyone who denies the wall will help is brainwashed. Note, he’s CIA, you really gonna trust this government lackey? Even adding more patrol and changing laws are not going to stop the thousands of criminal and cartel members sneaking across the border if you don’t have the physical barrier. We don’t need Money overseas for Military. Our boys need to be Home because This is where the invasion is not overseas for someones agenda war. This guy is a Democrat at heart.

  11. xnotx123

    October 22, 2019 at 11:05 pm

    So if the wall was free, everyone would be on board, right?

    • Yeoman International

      October 23, 2019 at 12:29 am

      Even if it cost no money, it would still severely damage the ecosystems along the border. Adjusting the design to eliminate the environmental cost would make it stop being a wall.

    • xnotx123

      October 23, 2019 at 1:50 am

      @Yeoman International I had a feeling the goal post would be endlessly shifted

    • Yeoman International

      October 23, 2019 at 1:45 pm

      @xnotx123 ​ I’m not moving goalposts; they’ve always been right where they are. The concept of a border wall has many problems, all of which have been talked about continuously since it was proposed. These include:
      1) enormous financial cost.
      2) requires the government taking land from American citizens along the border, including farmers and ranchers.
      3) will not stop terrorists because they enter the country through airports.
      4) will not stop drugs because they enter the country along the coastline.
      5) walls are vulnerable to ladders, ropes, and tunneling, and the only way to prevent that is to have people covering the entire length of the wall in order to prevent someone from scaling it or digging under it.
      6) it is impossible for border patrol to cover the entire wall with enough people to adequately respond to any crossing attempt with their current manpower – as this video states, it can take multiple days for agents to respond to some parts of the border.
      7) the border is 1,954 miles (3,439,040 yards) long. Border patrol currently has about 20,000 agents in total to cover the Canadian and Mexican borders; in 2014 87% were on the Mexican border, but that percentage decreased slightly every year since then, with the most recent reported numbers I could find saying that 85% of agents are now assigned to the southern border. Let’s be generous and assume that for 2020 the percentage goes up to 88%, which would mean 17,600 agents available. If ALL of those agents were assigned to patrol the wall, with two shifts working 12-hour days, that would mean each agent would be personally responsible for 390 yards of wall – almost the length of four football fields. Three 8-hour shifts would leave each agent with 586 yards. Assigning agents to other duties (like searching vehicles at gates or pursuing people who got past the wall) would make the number even bigger. To improve coverage, border patrol would need to get forty or fifty times bigger, which would cost an enormous amount of money just on its own.
      8) any wall that can stop humans will also stop animals, severely damaging desert ecosystems by preventing the movements of a large number of migratory creatures and pushing several endangered species closer to extinction, in addition to the destruction that comes purely from driving heavy equipment over everything and digging a huge trench for the wall’s foundation.

    • xnotx123

      October 24, 2019 at 6:08 am

      @Yeoman International Good arguments – you’ve convinced me for now:) Have a good one.

    • Yeoman International

      October 24, 2019 at 2:05 pm

      @xnotx123 You too!

  12. Divergent Droid

    October 22, 2019 at 11:10 pm

    Hey Fool.. when an adult is arrested and goes to jail, they have to separate the kids. Same thing here, it’s all Fair.

    • Yeoman International

      October 23, 2019 at 12:23 am

      These people aren’t under arrest or going to jail; entering the country to seek asylum is 100% legal. Despite that fact, they are being detained – children AND adults – in conditions that in some cases violate international treaties on treatment of *prisoners of war*.

      Also, when someone IS arrested, typically their children are not being arrested with the parent and there is someone else with whom the children can stay.

    • Alexandro Hernandez

      October 23, 2019 at 4:34 am

      I don’t know why,but it seems to me that locking children in cages isn’t right.

    • Pinky jones

      October 23, 2019 at 5:45 am

      @Alexandro Hernandez They aren’t in cages you moron, they are in dormitories and rooms.

  13. Don'tPlayOverwatch

    October 22, 2019 at 11:34 pm

    The comments section of this video is far from unexpected.

  14. ThatEditingBaka

    October 23, 2019 at 1:52 am

    It’s funny how everyone is like “The wall won’t solve the issue.”
    but when others on other matters say “this won’t solve the entire issue”, the reply “no, but it helps” is a valid argument.

    Like, I agree on that the wall is ridiculous, but at least don’t be a hypocrit when denying it as a solution…

    • Batra Chian

      October 24, 2019 at 5:53 pm

      @Bill Smith Anecdote, not evidence.

    • Bill Smith

      October 25, 2019 at 6:14 am

      @Batra Chian You are totally ignorant about this topic. The Mexican news papers covered the discovery of the mass graves and their TV channels covered the relatives going to gather and claim their bodies.

      The Federalize (Mexican equivalent of their federal police or our national guard with the FBI within it) had to move into Juarez because the violence was spilling over the border. At that time there wasn’t a wall.

      Anecdote, I THINK NOT ! Lack of knowledge on the subject and ignorance on this topic, I THINK YOU ARE !

  15. Bill Smith

    October 23, 2019 at 2:03 am

    I’ve lived in about 8 different cities in Texas. El Paso (prior to the wall being built). ANYONE who doesn’t support a wall doesn’t know the price the Mexican citizens are paying. The cartels tell these people they will use their land or they will kill the family(s) who live on that land and use it anyways. There were 4 mass graves on the Mexican side that were discovered back in the 90’s because cartels kill men, women and children who opposed them using their properties for entry and buried them right on their own property’s. It’s not a racial issue it is an issue of safety for both sides.

    • M Street

      October 25, 2019 at 10:44 am

      You can’t use government to fix government created problems anymore than you can cure cancer with cancer and you’re NOT going to fix anything by scapegoating those refugees of US foreign policy and war on drugs scam!

      It is because US coups in Central and South America by both parties that people of Central and South America are coming here!

      Satanistic eugenics based anti immigration laws created human trafficking by convincing a bunch of deceived, gullible IMMIGRANTS aka US citizens that “immigrants are evil criminals” which, like Prohibition, NEVER works to solve any problems nor does it stop anyone from coming and and the US “war on drugs” scam created cartels just like Prohibition created mafias!

      *If the Migrant Caravan is an ‘Invasion’ What’s the Term for What the US is Doing in Syria, Iraq, etc?*

      *”…It is a verifiable fact that roughly 5,000 men, women, and children are making a northward trek by foot, bus, and any other means, through Mexico. The reason for their trip, however, is not to “invade” the United States but rather to seek asylum from an assault originating in Washington DC that has long been perpetuated against the people of South America by both parties.*

      *The reality is that these folks are not “moving” or “migrating,” rather they are fleeing the violence in their homeland that is a direct result of American policy in that region. While the United States does not have a migrant crisis, we most assuredly have a refugee crisis—and it’s our fault.*

      *Starting under Ronald Reagan, the US has been funding extremist military regimes who’ve carried out mass murder, kidnappings and tortures in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.*

      *US-backed military coups, exploitation of resources, and America’s history of spreading economic neoliberalism in El Salvador have sent the entire region into chaos—just like what happens in all the countries who’ve been unfortunate enough to receive some “freedom” from the US. What’s more, it’s effectively created a climate where paramilitary-aligned drug cartels can and do thrive.*

      *The infamous MS-13 gangs, so often mentioned by Trump are a direct result of Bill Clinton’s administration’s policy.*

      *“This is a problem that’s American made through and through, so to treat it as though it’s some external threat being foisted on America obscures the fact that it’s our foreign policies, our military intervention, and our long history that created MS-13 in the first place,” Daniel Denvir, writer-in-residence at Harvard Law School’s Fair Punishment Project, told Democracy Now, summing it up succinctly.*

      *Couple this foreign intervention with America’s war on drugs, and we have the perfect storm for the current refugee crisis. Contrary to what your TV is telling you, no one walks 3,000 miles to “invade” another country, nor do they leave behind their homes and risk kidnapping, death, or worse to seek out some version of the American dream.*

      *However, when gangs run rampant and corrupt militarized governments become indistinguishable from drug cartels, and innocent people, including children, are being slaughtered, then and only then does a 3,000 mile trek on foot to seek refuge become feasible.”*

      *”People fleeing conflict in their country—that is a direct result of bipartisan American policy—does nothing for either of the parties’ platforms. However, when you can spin what’s happening to make “the other guys” look bad by lying to Americans about why there are thousands of people walking through Mexico, then you have the makings of a political campaign.*

      *To call this an “invasion” is not only entirely inaccurate, but it’s insanely hypocritical. Even if the majority of this caravan does make it to the US border, there is absolutely no way that they would or could invade us—even without the US military that Trump is sending that way. To be entirely clear on that notion, here is the definition of “invasion”:*

      *noun*

      *1. an act or instance of invading or entering as an enemy, especially by an army. (They have no army)*

      *2. the entrance or advent of anything troublesome or harmful, as disease.(They are human beings, not a disease)*

      *3. entrance as if to take possession or overrun:(5,000 people could never take possession or overrun anything in such a well armed country)*

      *Fleeing to another country because your children are being kidnapped, murdered and tortured as a direct result of foreign governments meddling in your country is not an invasion.*

      *On the contrary, however, flying tanks, bombs, jets, and troops overseas and stationing yourself inside the borders of a sovereign nation—without being invited—is an invasion.”*

      More at

      If the Migrant Caravan is an ‘Invasion’ What’s the Term for What the US is Doing in Syria, Iraq, etc?

  16. Fredrick Christensen

    October 23, 2019 at 2:13 am

    #CutThroat Breeding is easy ..responsibility is the question

  17. swampgremlin1

    October 23, 2019 at 3:02 am

    For those that dont know the wall is to keep us in not to keep people out. Youll know what i mean soon enough.

  18. Howard Miller

    October 23, 2019 at 4:52 am

    The thing I worry most about building walls is not letting people in, but keeping me from getting out.

  19. Hans Gruber

    October 23, 2019 at 10:12 am

    “A wall won’t solve America’s border problems”. Neither will leftists.

  20. JJSmalls

    October 23, 2019 at 11:03 am

    Why is Will Hurd bringing up corrupt police officials from El Salvador? What does that have to do with securing America’s borders? Two different issues.

    Sending more money to the countries in the northern triangle instead of focusing on securing the border is akin to fixing a leak by scooping water out with a bucket.

    Why didn’t he mention how much money human traffickers are making by smuggling people across the border? Why not mention that some children are being “recycled” since men would have an easier time getting through screening if they have a child with them?

    Why did he bring up legal immigration, asylum, and hiring more immigration judges? How can we have a system of legal immigration when people from Africa can just walk across the border? Will’s argument amounts to “lets just keep throwing money at the problem while ignoring the biggest elephant in the room.” Will Hurd is a massive RINO and what he’s selling is Democratic Party’s talking points. This might as well be propaganda.

  21. TruthseekerforHim

    October 23, 2019 at 11:22 am

    no one said it would by itself. Its part of the plan. If you can’t see that your a moron.

  22. Nick G

    October 23, 2019 at 1:34 pm

    No wonder TED doesn’t get views any more. Technology Entertainmentt Design has just turned into yet another left leaving politics channel.

    • Gen Crider

      October 24, 2019 at 5:24 pm

      Pretty sure the e is for education

  23. Brandon Huber

    October 23, 2019 at 2:40 pm

    I want a wall, hey man it worked for Israel.

  24. matt

    October 23, 2019 at 3:05 pm

    Step 1: get rid of Donald Trump

  25. Jeff Despain

    October 23, 2019 at 5:29 pm

    Mr. Hurd,

    Here are a few ideas you might want to consider to propose to Congress:

    Don’t
    1. Don’t separate children from their parents. It’s mean and counter-productive.
    2. Don’t build a wall. It’s expensive and not that effective.

    Do’s
    1. Imprison employers who hire illegals. Have ICE go undercover if needed.
    2. Make sure that benefits meant for citizens only go to citizens, not illegals.
    3. Decide on quotas for immigration each year and enforce them. Make sure that the quotas are not so high that as to harm current citizens by flooding the labor market with cheap/exploitable workers.
    4. For those who qualify within the quotas, make the path to citizenship easier.

  26. dev0n james

    October 23, 2019 at 9:07 pm

    that’s true a wall won’t help when liberals and neo cons will break every law to allow their slave labor and voters across the border. both parties are guilty of exploiting.

  27. Caterfree10

    October 23, 2019 at 9:13 pm

    I want more Republicans like this guy. I could believe in bipartisanship if there were more like him.

  28. matabeleman

    October 23, 2019 at 10:22 pm

    America is a mess…..

  29. Bothand Nether

    October 24, 2019 at 12:41 pm

    funfact: There are 23 Countries in North America

    • M Street

      October 25, 2019 at 10:51 am

      And the moon is part of Mars according to Trump!

  30. Jeremy Kenny

    October 24, 2019 at 8:46 pm

    Why does an undercover officer with the CIA describe himself as “an undercover officer in the CIA” ? theres a lot of wandersome talk of conflating issues, but really he seems to be making a pretty good case for building a wall. . . . I get the impression he’s touting for votes by showing concern for children, does anyone else get the feeling he’s virtue signalling ?

  31. robert hicks

    October 25, 2019 at 1:06 am

    So much bullshit here.
    1) the wall is PART of a system. What good is it to have more technology if they can drive across and be 50 miles inside in a city by the time the border patrol can respond to the technology alert. A wall means they can not simply drive in. A double wall means they would have a very hard time getting in, in the first place.

    2) They are not taking money from training or equipment but from pork belly projects congress did just to get money for construction in their district.

    I could not watch farther than that with all the bullshit.

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