Trump: Deportations to begin Day 1
Donald wants Mexico to pay for wall that will cover half of the border with the US
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump linked illegal immigration and employment Saturday, pledging to start deporting offenders as soon as he is sworn in should he become the White House’s next occupant.
Mr Trump all the while courted the black vote, claiming that the shooting of basketball star Dwyane Wade’s cousin will make African Americans support him, but the move instead
A vote for Trump is a vote to have a nation of laws, a vote for Clinton is a vote for open borders, stresses ‘ the Donald’
triggered a firestorm of criticism.
“On Day One, I am going to begin swiftly removing criminal illegal immigrants from this country — including removing the hundreds of thousands of criminal illegal immigrants that have been released into US communities under the ObamaClinton administration,” Mr Trump told supporters in Des Moines, Iowa.
“A vote for Trump is a vote to have a nation of laws, a vote for Clinton is a vote for open borders,” he stressed.
Washington, Aug. 28: Even as Donald Trump vacillates between toning down his harsh anti- immigrant rhetoric and reaching out to minorities, he remains unshakeable on one central campaign promise: building a wall on America’s southern border with Mexico.
“We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities,” the Republican presidential candidate said as he accepted his party’s nomination last month.
It’s an idea experts say is as useless as it is unrealistic. Though that has hardly given Mr Trump a pause.
“I will build the greatest wall that you have ever seen,” he elaborated at a recent rally. “That’s a Trump wall, a beautiful wall!”
“And who’s going to pay for it?” he asks at his events.
“Mexico!” his energised supporters roared back.
Mr Trump says his success as a construction magnate guarantees he can build such a wall but has provided few details.
The 3,200- kilometre USMexico border runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, crossing arid, sparsely populated territory, as well as urban centres thick with inhabitants.
After initially promising to build a new barrier running the entire length of the border, Mr Trump now says only half actually needs to be covered
because the physical terrain acts as a natural barrier along the rest. But if he’s clear about the length, what about the height? Mr Trump has variously mentioned 35 feet ( 10.5 metres), 40 feet, 55 feet and even 90 feet.
“The wall just got 10 feet higher!” he’s said when Mexican officials repeated that their country has no intention of paying a dime.
He is just as vague about the cost — $ 4 billion, then “six or seven” billion, “probably eight,” and “10, maybe 12,” before finally settling at “around $ 10 billion.”
However, architects and engineers dismiss that figure as entirely unrealistic given even the minimum predictable costs.
Mr Trump’s plan calls for prefabricated concrete panels reinforced with steel rods, heavy materials that present immense logistical challenges: paving roads for access, building multiple sites for pouring concrete and hiring armies of workers over several years.
The wall would require foundations deep enough to ensure stability and discourage tunnelling.
A 40- foot concrete wall using a “post and panel” system sunk 10 feet below ground would cost at least $ 26 billion, according to the Texan wall expert Todd Sternfeld.
Mr Trump dismisses such figures, however, pointing to China’s ancient, 13,000- mile- long Great Wall.
“They didn’t have cranes. They didn’t have excavation equipment,” he says. “We need 1,000 miles and we have all of the materials.”