A different type of foreign aid. From the New York Times-

They have heard of people tunneling under it, scaling it and, on the Mexican side, defacing it. But it is not often, law enforcement authorities say, that people try to rip apart the border fence to sell it.

That appears to be the motive that led to the arrest this week in Tijuana, Mexico, of six people who, the authorities there say, were caught shearing off chunks of the metal plate fence to sell as scrap.

The case began Monday afternoon when United States Border Patrol agents spotted a group tampering with the fence on the Mexican side just over a mile west of the San Ysidro port of entry, in an area where smuggling of drugs and people is common, said Mark Endicott, a Border Patrol spokesman in San Diego.

As the agents approached, Mr. Endicott said, rocks rained down “to keep the agents away from the area,” and supervisors called the Mexican police.

The next afternoon, another group in the same area could be seen next to the fence “attempting to dismantle it,” Mr. Endicott said.

People stealing metal, copper, cemetery urns, just to sell it as scrap metal, is becoming a common phenomenon of late. As for the border fence, I always thought it was a dumb idea. It would require constant patrolling to prevent Illegal aliens from finding a way through it, under it, or over it. Now we can add dismantling it for scrap metal to the list of reasons the border fence was a waste of money.