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 Trump’s executive order and again said Mexico would not pay for the wall’s 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”.
The Wall Isn’t About Border Security
The biggest problem is that the wall was never about border security.
Donald Trumps wall is about dividing Americans playing upon the racial fears and anxiety he has drummed up and amplified to rally his base. Trumps wall is a political campaign promise that he has to fulfill to keep his base happy.
Trumps border wall is trying to solve a problem that doesnt exist. Border apprehensions have been falling for years, and the border wall will do nothing about the real issue of visa overstays.
CONGRESSMAN:Why we should build Trump’s border wall
The wall is a giant waste of money, and there are countless ways to better invest the tens of billions of dollars we would waste on a wall.
For example, U.S businesses are feeling the negative effects of lengthy delays at ports-of-entry caused by insufficient staffing.
Fortunately, theres a solution. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, we could boost our economy by $2 billion simply by hiring 1,000 new customs officers and we could do it for a fraction of the cost of Trump’s wall.
Trumps Big Border Wall Is Now A Pile Of Rusting Steel
Worth at least a quarter billion dollars, the steel bollards are a relic of the Trump era.
Tens of thousands of heavy steel slats, once destined to become part of former President Donald Trumps border wall, are slowly rusting in the open air throughout the southwestern borderlands. The bollards18- or 33-foot-long hollow posts, most of them reinforced with concrete and rebarare worth at least a quarter of a billion dollars. The Department of Defense owns most of that steel, but its unclear what willor canbe done with it. For now, it remains in spider-webbed stacks sunning themselves in vast staging areas along the wall.
President Joe Biden persistently campaigned on a clean break from the policies of the Trump administration. Perhaps in no other field did Trumps critics hope for swifter and more complete reversals than in immigration and border policy. Those hopes have been dashed: Despite many promises, the Biden administration has effectively locked in, and in some cases even expanded, draconian anti-immigration measures implemented by Trump. The wall was supposed to be the easy change. But halting a project of this scale is never easy.
Down a little hump in the road from the wall near Guadalupe Canyon stood a fortress of bollards: 30 huge stacks forming a ring, in the center of which were piles of light poles, PVC piping, electrical wires, prefab concrete, tangles of steel mesh, and long snakes of steel rebarall just sitting there.
You May Like: Has Donald Trump Been Arrested
The Wall Is Like A Battery Power For Racial Division
Like the wall itself, Trumps Tuesday visit to the U.S./Mexico border was surrounded by controversy. Local activists and politicians spoke publicly against Trumps visit and called on the White House to cancel it out of fear of further violence. Meanwhile, Trump faces pressure to resign from office, and is facing being impeached for the second time for inciting a mob of supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Local activists expressed concerns for the safety of marginalized communities who live along the border in light of acts of violence committed by Trump supporters at the Capitol. Some shared their fears of continuing the spread of COVID-19 because large crowds are expected to show up when the president speaks in front of the wall on Tuesday. Others shared that they were offended by Trump visiting one of the locations impacted by Zero Tolerance Policy, when thousands of children were separated from their parents upon entering the U.S.
One complaint consistently expressed by opposers since Trump first made his campaign promise to build the wall is that it is a symbol of racism and xenophobia. The wall is like a battery power for racial division, Laredo activist and organizer Juan Ruiz said in a public statement on Monday. Trump is coming here to get recharged, and power up his base. Biden needs to shut it off.
It Wasnt Only Democrats Who Had Doubts About The Structure
The construction of a physical barrier along the Mexican border has been Donald Trumps signature issue since he hit the campaign trail in 2015 and led repeated chants of Build the wall! After Trump won, he enjoyed two years when his fellow Republicans controlled both the Senate and House of Representatives. But he only began to insist on billions in wall funding after Democrats captured the House, precipitating the longest federal shutdown in U.S. history. If the border wall was as important to Trump as he says, why didnt Republicans provide the funds while they ruled Capitol Hill?
The answer to this political mystery is that the wall has never been a top priority for most Republicans. And their stance reflects limited enthusiasm for its construction among conservative policy-makers and voters alike. An American public that has serious concerns about immigration in general nevertheless remains unconvinced that a wall would solve the problems it perceives. As a result, Republican politicians apparently calculated that theyd be better off if the electorate continued to express broad anxiety about the border than if lawmakers actually tried to impose an unpopular solution.
Recommended Reading: How Many Votes Does Trump Have 2020
A Key Migrant Camp Is Emptying
Thousands who have made the journey to the southern US border have found refuge in temporary border communities – often in shanty towns with little infrastructure or resources and vulnerable to pressure from violent organised-crime gangs.
According to Human Rights Watch, these migrants are under threat from criminal organisations which kidnap them on the assumption that they have relatives in the US who could be extorted for money.
In the town of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, hundreds of people set up one such camp in 2018 near the entry point, in the scrubland on the banks of the Rio Grande.
Charities such as the World Food Kitchen, the Dignity Village collective and Global Response Management provide food, tents, clothing and medical care to those living in the camp, where around 50% of residents are under the age of 15.
But Andrea Leiner, director of strategic planning for GRM, says coronavirus and July’s Hurricane Hanna have had dire consequences.
Coronavirus restrictions have meant the border has been closed for all but essential travel and immigration hearings have been postponed.
Hurricane Hanna not only brought floods to the camp but also caused an infestation of rats, snakes and mosquitoes, forcing many residents to flee.
Ms Leiner says the repeated blows of plague, famine, and hurricane, on top of the legal restrictions, have drained people of hope.
What Would A Wall Even Cost
One thing to get straight: There actually already is a wall or more specifically, a fence on the Mexican border. The border is about 1,900 miles long and basically crosses a mountain range – not ideal for building a wall.
The existing 650 mile fence along the border cost over $7 billion, but even with a price tag like that, its not anywhere near the quality Trumps after. He wants it impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful which doesnt come cheap. Its not just the 339 million cubic feet of concrete a lot of the land is privately owned, so would need to be bought, and crossing mountains which would be a nightmare to build on. Trump estimates the wall would cost $10-12 billion, but others reckon it will be more in the region of $25 billion.
Recommended Reading: Would Bernie Sanders Beat Trump
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.
What Barriers Were Already Constructed When Trump Took Office
Trumps predecessors George W. Bush and Barack Obama builtmiles of barriers on the southern border while eschewing Trumps anti-immigrantrhetoric. These pro-immigration presidents put a great deal of money intosecuring the border because they believed that doing so would strengthen theircase for passage of comprehensive immigration reform.
The southern border is nearly 2,000 miles long. About 700 ofthose miles are on land the remaining 1,300 miles are the Rio Grande river. Accordingto the Government Accountability Office , prior to 2005 only about 150miles of the border was fenced. Over about eight years and with approximately$2.4 billion, the fencing was extended to approximately 650 miles. When Trumptook office almost all the land border had fencing of some type, such as chainlink, bollard fence , or vehicle fencing thats shapedlike a roadblock. You can see images of the fences, as well as breaches in eachtype of fence, in GAOs 2017 report.
Don’t Miss: How Many Times Did Donald Trump Go Bankrupt
Promise: The Wall Would Cost $8
Perhaps Trumps most consistent promise about the border wall was that Mexico would pay for it.
“I will have Mexico pay for that wall, mark my words,” Trump said at his presidential announcement speech, one of hundreds of times he made that promise.
He said during his 2016 campaign that it would cost $8 billion, or perhaps $12 billion, for his 1,000-mile wall. In fact, the federal government has allocated $15 billion for the 453 mile project, according to Time Magazine.
Mexico did not pay for the wall its leaders have refused since Trump first made his promise. After Trump’s inauguration, the president began suggesting that the U.S. would initially pay, but that Mexico would reimburse the U.S. for the wall.
That has also not happened. Taxpayers foot the bill for Trump’s wall.
Did Mexico Pay For The Wall
In 2016, President Trump repeatedly claimed Mexico would pay for the wall. This didn’t happen.
The US government has paid for the wall, and there’ve been arguments over how to fund it between the Trump administration and Congress.
In January 2018, Mr Trump asked Congress to pay $18bn over the next decade for an initial phase of construction, but the bill ultimately failed.
Some money was allocated by Congress in 2018 for projects at the border.
However, in 2019 Mr Trump used national emergency powers to divert funds from the Department of Defense after Congress rejected more money for the wall.
There has been around $15bn spent for the construction of the barrier coming from various US government departments, including the Department of Homeland Security, and the Defense and Treasury Departments.
It was originally estimated a cross-border wall could cost anything from $12bn to $40bn.
Despite this, in the run-up to the 3 November 2020 election, President Trump continued to say that “Mexico is paying for it”.
In the past, he’s implied that a new trade agreement involving Mexico and Canada would indirectly save the US money, which could be spent on the wall.
However, it’s not clear how exactly this would work.
President Trump also pledged to reduce illegal movement across the border.
The number of people detained at the border increased significantly between 2018 and 2019, but dropped off in 2020.
Read Also: Is There A Casino In Trump Hotel Las Vegas
Lets Go Back In Time To The First Walls Who Built Them And Why
The first walls were city walls and they originated with the very first cities, like Jericho, the city of the Bible, which was first constructed sometime in the tenth millennium B.C., as many as 12,000 years ago. It was a walled city and, subsequently, nearly all cities in the ancient world were walled.
The first border walls arent found until the late 2000s B.C., in Mesopotamia. Security is why they were built. There were two different lifestyles developing: a lifestyle of the people I call wallers, who are workers who build things and identify themselves by their civilian occupations. They sought to secure themselves by building structures that would protect them even when they were sleeping at night. Outside the walls, you have a very different sort of society, people inured to the dangers of living in an un-walled world. Non-wallers were peoples we generally refer to historically as barbarians, like the Huns, the Goths, or the Mongols. They were viewed with fear by the wall-builders. And thats what inspired the construction of the early walls.
The Walls Of Byzantium Or Constantinople As It Is Also Known Played A Crucial Role In Defending Western Christian Civilization Explain Why And How The Horrible Bombard Effectively Made Walls As Defensive Structures Obsolete
The city of Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine Empire. When Islamic armies first spread out of Arabia, in the seventh century A.D., and started heading west, they were able to sweep aside the defenses of most of the Byzantine Empire and, in the early eighth century, cross into Spain. The city of Constantinople proved a tougher nut to crack, though. It held out for hundreds of years, becoming the headquarters of the defense of the Western world against Islam.
But when the Sultan Mehmed II besieged Constantinople in 1453 he had a new weapon. There had been various techniques of siege craft before, but they were very difficult and slow. Cannons changed all that, ultimately making city walls obsolete. They had been around for about 100 years but there had never been a cannon like this before. The sultan had a Hungarian foundryman make for him an enormous cannon that could fire stone balls seven feet in circumference from a distance of a mile. This was referred to as the Horrible Bombard by one of the sources and it relentlessly battered the city walls of Constantinople in the spring of 1453, when the city eventually fell.
The most famous wall of modern times was, unusually, built to keep people in, rather than out. Describe the Berlin Walls historical context the Iron Curtainand the mythology it inspired in books and movies.
Also Check: How Many Times Has Trump Lied
This Land Is Your Land This Land Is My Land
The Fifth Amendment allows the federal government to seize privately owned land under two conditions: 1) The owner of the land must be justly compensated and 2) The land must be used for the public benefit. Traditionally, eminent domain has been invoked in order to build public infrastructure or to establish public parks. In 1996, the IIRIRA was enacted, broadly and punitively increasing the immigration enforcement powers of the federal government and allowing the government to buy or seize land adjacent to or in the vicinity of an international land border.
In 2006, Congress and the Bush administration enacted the Secure Fence Act, which sought to address border security by requiring the building of hundreds of miles of fencing and other barriers along the southwest border. In order to implement this legislation and build the new fencing, thousands of acres of land were seized. This resulted in more than 300 lawsuits, approximately 60 of which are still pending more than 10 years later. Today, the Secure Fence Act serves as an example of how the governments wall-building activities fell short of both the stated goals and the law. An investigation by The Texas Tribune found that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security circumvented laws related to fair payment and paid settlements to the wrong individuals, while the U.S. Department of Justice seized property before confirming who the true owners were.
