Explainer: Why Is Trump Visiting The Border Wall In The Last Days Of His Presidency
By Mimi Dwyer
4 Min Read
LOS ANGELES – U.S. President Donald Trump will visit the U.S.-Mexico border on Tuesday just a week before he is due to leave office to tout what he views as one of his biggest accomplishments: the partial construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump plans to visit the wall in Alamo, Texas, a town in Texas Rio Grande Valley. It is distinct from the site of the Battle of the Alamo, a pivotal Texan loss in the Texas Revolution, which was later used by some Texans to invoke a battle cry. The White House denied any symbolism in Trumps choice of destination.
Push To Abandon The Wall
With little clarity as to the status of the wall or timetable for an announcement, Democrats and activists are intent on keeping Biden to his campaign commitment to stop construction.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., a leading House progressive, has called on Biden to tear down the entire project.
The wall is a monument of xenophobia and hatred that does nothing to address the root causes of migration and asylum claims violence and unrest in the countries of origin that the United States has often exacerbated, Omar, a former refugee from Somalia, said in a statement.
On the other side of the party, border Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, said Biden should determine whether to tear down or continue building portions of the wall on a case-by-case basis.
He said the administration should redirect wall funds to technology and other border infrastructure and warned that Democrats could be punished by voters in the 2022 midterms for not taking a tougher position on border security in light of the migrant crisis and ongoing GOP attacks.
More than 172,000 migrants were taken into government custody at the southwest border in March, according to Customs and Border Protection, the largest single-month total in nearly two decades.
They should just cease and desist. No more walls. People are going to get over it anyway. Youve seen them drop the babies, she said.
Stop : A Scarred Mountainside And A Half
It is enraging. We have watched thousands of pounds of dynamite be detonated in wilderness areas, in corridors for endangered species, in places where there is not frequent migration from people or smugglers. They have cut through an entire mountain range to build a small section of wall that to someone in DC was just another mile on the tally.
Laiken Jordahl, environmental activist
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Do Democrats Want Open Borders
No. Trump and his supporters say Democrats support open borders , but Democrats have backed plenty of legislation that restricts immigration.
In February, the Senate voted on a bipartisan plan to spend $25bn over 10 years to expand the various physical barriers along the border and to protect the Dreamers, the estimated 3.6 million undocumented people who came to the US unlawfully as children. Trump rejected that bill.
Impact On Mexicous Relations
The executive order soured relations between the U.S. and Mexico. Mexican PresidentEnrique Peña Nieto addressed Mexican citizens via a recorded message, in which he condemned Trumps executive order and again said Mexico would not pay for the walls construction. Following a Twitter feud between the two leaders in which Trump threatened to cancel a planned meeting with Nieto in Washington, Nieto decided to cancel the meeting himself.
Addressing supporters, Mexican opposition politician Andrés Manuel López Obrador condemned the wall order as an insult to Mexico, and demanded the Mexican government to pursue claims against the American government in the United Nations.
In March 2017, Mexican congressman Braulio Guerra of Querétaro illegally climbed, and partially crossed, an existing 30-foot border fence on American soil dividing San Diego and Tijuana, saying that more walls would be ineffective.
The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Mexico opposed the border wall, and wrote that any Mexican company that participates in construction of the wall or supplies materials for construction would be committing treason against the homeland.
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Promise: 1000 Miles Of Wall Status: Not Kept
On Tuesday, the president falsely claimed hed promised and delivered 450 miles of border wall.
In fact, that amounts to less than half of his initial promise. And just 47 miles of the 450 miles amounts new structures where none existed before.
In 2015 and 2016, Trump said he expected the border wall would be around 1,000 miles long, with mountains and rivers creating natural barriers, too. More recently, in his 2020 State of the Union address, Trump said that substantially more than 500 miles of border wall would be done by early 2021.
A Customs and Border Protection spokesman told NBC News that the Trump administration has built 453 miles of new border wall system, which includes barriers as well as patrol roads for patrol cars and other surveillance efforts.
The vast majority of it replaces pedestrian and vehicle barriers erected during previous administrations with much taller steel bollard fencing. Trump falsely claimed he was building a completely new border wall throughout much of his administration when in fact he was replacing older fences.
As of January 8, the Trump administration has built just 47 miles of border wall where none existed before. President Barack Obama left office with 654 miles of border fencing in existence, according to a Government Accountability Office report from early 2017 Trump will leave with 701 miles of border fencing, according to CBP. The half-mile section that Trump visited today was completely new, the spokesman said.
Fact Check: Did President Trump Build The Big Beautiful Border Wall He Promised
During President Donald Trumps first campaign for president, one of his biggest, most quoted promises was to build a big, beautiful wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
As far back as June 16, 2015, when he launched his campaign, Trump promised to build a great wall on the U.S.-Mexico border very inexpensively.
I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and Ill build them very inexpensively, Trump said. I will build a great great wall on our southern border and Ill have Mexico pay for that wall.
Build the wall chants were still heard at Trumps 2020 campaign rallies.
As President-elect Joe Biden is set to take office January 20, the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection aim to complete 450 miles of border wall before the inauguration.
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What Progress Has Been Made On Trumps Promise To Build A Wall
Very little progress. So far only 83 miles of barriers havebeen constructed,all of which replaced old fencing and old barriers. When Trump took office heordered wall prototypes, eight of which were constructed in California in 2017.Many Americans probably saw the presidents in the spring of 2018. Behind the scenes a teamincluding Border Patrol, the Army Corps of Engineers, and U.S. Army SpecialForces had already conducted extensive testing of the prototypes. The resultingreport by U.S. Customs and Border Protection foundthateach of the eight prototypes was vulnerable to at least one breachingtechnique. The prototypes weredemolished in early 2019, and the new construction so far appears to be a tallversion of existing bollard fencing.
The Trump administration has not been successful in gettingCongress to appropriate the sums that Trump envisions the wall would require. Costscould run as high as $21.6 billion, according to a 2017 estimatefrom the Department of Homeland Security . The GAO points out thata generic per-mile estimate of the construction cost doesnt represent the costof actual, individual projects. They also say that a per-mile cost is anunrealistic representation of the project because, as with any project of thisscale, the government would have to prioritize certain places overotherseither operationally or because of cost.
Most Of The Wall Isnt Wall At All
As well as scaling back his ambitions for the length of the border barrier, Mr Trump has also changed his view of what constitutes a wall.
Throughout his 2016 election campaign, when he described it, he talked about concrete.
But once elected, he began referring to a barrier made of steel, which would enable border agents to see through it.
And what has been built so far is mostly such steel fencing.
Specifically, much of the current wave of construction is 18-30ft reinforced bollard fencing, according to a report by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service.
It poses a formidable barrier, but it is not the high, thick masonry structure that most dictionaries term a wall, the report states.
However, the report adds that while the new barriers may not be made of concrete and in many cases replace existing structures, they do pose a new obstacle that changes the calculus of those attempting to cross the border between ports of entry.
Having said that, although Mr Trumps barriers are not themselves made of concrete, they have been constructed using a significant amount of it, according to CBP.
Some 774,000 cubic yards of concrete have been used in construction so far, alongside 539,000 tonnes of steel.
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Mr Trump Is Demanding That $5 Billion For The Wall Be Included In A Spending Bill Necessary To Keep The Government Running
Democrats have long been opposed to this, leaving Senate Republicans without enough votes to get the spending legislation passed. Democrats say a border wall is ineffective, in part because it constantly needs to be repaired.
And building the wall is expensive: An official price tag has yet to be determined, but estimates range from $25 billion over the next 10 years to $70 billion.
The Trump administration says there is a crisis at the border, despite government data that shows illegal border crossings into the United States from Mexico are . In 2000, federal agents apprehended 71,000 to 220,000 people trying to illegally enter the United States each month. This year, the apprehensions range from 20,000 to 40,000 people each month.
Biden Taps Harris To Stem Migration Flow From Central America
White House press secretary Jen Psaki recently distanced the president from the project but did not affirm Bidens campaign trail promise.
There are some components of the wall that had already been allocated, the funding, to continue building by Congress. So we are working within what is allowable, but our focus is not we do not believe the wall is in answer, Psaki told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega.
There is some limited construction that has been funded and allocated for, but it is otherwise paused, Psaki said.
Bidens first budget proposal to Congress requested no additional funding for the wall and asked lawmakers to cancel any unspent funds at the end of 2021.
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How Much Will It Cost
Trump estimated that the wall will cost about $8 billion US, a figure many suggest might be too low.
A 2016 report from Bernstein, an investment research firm, suggests the cost would likely be much higher, ringing in somewhere between $15-$25 billion.
The Bernstein report cited the Government Accountability Office, which in 2009 reported that one mile of fencing along the border cost between $2.8 million and $3.9 million to install. The report also noted that this calculation applied to the easiest stretches of land.
Critics have also questioned if Trumps estimate also takes maintenance of the wall into account.
Why The Wall Wouldnt Stop Smuggling
Why the DHS believes that a 30foot tall wall cannot be scaled and a tunnel cannot be built deeper than six feet below ground is not clear.
Drug smugglers have been using tunnels to get drugs into the United States ever since Mexicos most famous drug trafficker, Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán of the Sinaloa Cartel, pioneered the method in 1989. And the sophistication of these tunnels has only grown over time. In April 2016, U.S. law enforcement officials discovered a drug tunnel that ran more than half a mile from Tijuana to San Diego and was equipped with ventilation vents, rails, and electricity. It is the longest such tunnel to be found so far, but one of 13 of great length and technological expertise discovered since 2006. Altogether, between 1990 and 2016, 224 tunnels have been unearthed at the U.S.Mexico border.
Other smuggling methods increasingly include the use of drones and catapults as well as joint drainage systems between border towns that have wide tunnels or tubes through which people can crawl and drugs can be pulled. But even if the land border were to become much more secure, that would only intensify the trend toward smuggling goods as well as people via boats that sail far to the north, where they land on the California coast.
224The number of tunnels unearthed at the U.S.Mexico border, 19902016
And America does nothing to stop the weapons coming here! Valeria exclaimed to me.
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Can It Be Reversed
One might assume that Trumps changes to the immigration system can be easily undone particularly since they were put in place unilaterally through executive actions .
To be sure, many of the presidents immigration policy changes have already been reversed, paused or have yet to take effect. Nearly every major regulatory or processing change to the immigration system has been challenged in court: the public-charge rule, terminating DACA, asylum restrictions, fee increases, efforts to make it more difficult for military service members to become naturalized, the slowdown in printing of green cards, and more.
And the administration has an overwhelming record of legal failure, according to a database of major Trump regulatory actions maintained by the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York Universitys School of Law. In nearly every immigration case that has had some sort of resolution, a court either ruled against the agency or the relevant agency withdrew the action after being sued. Which says something about the legal chops of the people writing these policies or the quantity of corners being cut possibly both.
Other regulatory actions would also likely be reversed by a new administration. But such reversals would happen slowly, if at all.
Some rollbacks might be bad politics for Joe Biden, too. For example, the temporary visa program for skilled workers which Trump has curtailed has vocal critics within the Democratic base.
Wall Is Coming Trump Promises
One of Donald Trump’s signature promises is to build a wall along the border with Mexico. He’s said it will be big, powerful, tall, beautiful, impenetrable.
“I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively,” Trump said June 16, 2015, when he launched his campaign for the White House.“I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.”
“Build the wall!” chants became a staple at his campaign events. But there’s a lot at play, from getting a foreign sovereign nation to foot the bill to sorting out the specifics of this monumental endeavor.
WHY HE’S PROMISING IT
Trump says stronger border security, particularly a wall, will end illegal immigration and cut the flow of illicit drugs pouring into the United States.
The U.S.-Mexico border stretches nearly 2,000 miles, more than half of it along the Colorado River and Rio Grande. By May 2015, there were about 650 miles of vehicle and pedestrian fencing, according to a March 2016 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN
For Trump to carry out his real estate promise, he’ll need funding from Congress and/or Mexico’s money. He’s outlined potential regulatory changes that he believes will persuade Mexico to comply.
Trump’s team has said Congress could appropriate funds for the construction of the wall “to make it more speedy, and then having Mexico pay for it after the fact.”
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Trumps Executive Order To Build Border Wall Is A Start
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to push forward one of his biggest campaign promises: build a wall along the border with Mexico.
The executive order signed Jan. 25, five days after Trumps inauguration, instructs departments and agencies to deploy all lawful means to secure the southern border, prevent further illegal immigration and to send immigrants in the country illegally back to their countries.
The order sets forth Trumps policy to secure the border through the immediate construction of a physical wall, to prevent drug trafficking and terrorism.
It directs the secretary of homeland security to:
In accordance with existing law, including the Secure Fence Act and IIRIRA, take all appropriate steps to immediately plan, design, and construct a physical wall along the southern border, using appropriate materials and technology to most effectively achieve complete operational control of the southern border.
The order defines wall as a contiguous, physical wall or other similarly secure, contiguous, and impassable physical barrier.
It also asks the department to identify and allocate sources of federal funds for the planning, design, and construction of the physical wall, and to prepare congressional budget requests for the current and upcoming fiscal years.
In an interview with ABC News David Muir aired Jan. 25, Trump said wall construction would start in months.
Other experts have told us it could take years to build a border wall.
Bidens Plan For The Future Of The Wall
Biden has promised to undo most, if not all, of Trumps immigration policies, many in the first 100 days of office, including a complete halt on border wall construction. Bidens plan for his first 100 days in office include putting an end to Trumps February 2019 National Emergency declaration that diverted billions of dollars from other federal programs to build the wall. For example, in FY2019, the U.S. Department of Defense identified $2.5 billion from a counter narcotics program to fund wall construction, according to CBP. The following fiscal year, it identified an additional $3.8 billion from the same counter narcotics program. In FY2019, the Department of Defense also identified $3.6 billion from military construction to go towards the wall.
Building a wall from sea-to-shining-sea is not a serious policy solutionits a waste of money, and it diverts critical resources away from the real threats, the Biden Campaign website reads. A spokesperson for the Biden transition team did not immediately return TIMEs request for comment.
Most of the wall construction took place in 2019, according to Bolter. At this time a year ago in January of 2020, 100 miles of border wall had been completed in three years of the Trump Administration, she says. So were looking at 350 miles completed since then.
Instead, Biden plans to focus on investing in border technology to increase the effectiveness of screening at ports of entry, and increase partnerships with Canada and Mexico.
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