Trump to inspect border wall models
President scheduled to travel to the border near San Diego on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump is scheduled to travel Tuesday to the Mexican border near San Diego to inspect prototypes of what is, in many ways, the cornerstone of his 2016 candidacy: the wall.
“This was not just another promise for President Trump; it was the most important promise,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. “The wall is a physical manifestation of Trump’s vision of a winning America.”
It is also a symbol of a divisive America, and protesters say they will be out in force.
“Trump’s anti-immigrant and anti-environment agenda has no place in our California communities,” said Ruben Arizmendi, chairman of the Sierra Club’s San Diego chapter, who called the wall “a monument to xenophobia and racism.”
“It is unnecessary, expensive and will provide no national security benefits,” he said.
And while the eight wall prototypes — four made of concrete and four from other, unspecified material — were installed in California for testing and evaluation, they are going to have a Texas impact. The Lone Star State has 1,250 miles of the nearly 2,000mile border.
There is one Texas company among the six that built the eight
prototypes: Texas Sterling Construction Co. of Houston, which built a concrete wall. The Department of Homeland Security called for the prototypes to be 30 feet high, difficult to scale and resistant to tampering or damage. The agency was also looking for a wall that was aesthetically pleasing — at least from the U.S. side.
Trump made border security with Mexico the marquee issue of his candidacy, and he has not retreated from his mantra — “build the wall” — although there have been some substantial tweaks. Trump and former Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly (now White House chief of staff ) have said there will not be a continuous wall from Brownsville to San Diego — natural barriers including presumably the Rio Grande in rugged Big Bend National Park would not see a wall — with the focus being on areas without a barrier that see high numbers of illegal crossings. There are currently about 650 miles of fencing.
Trump has stuck to the other part of his mantra — having Mexico pay for the wall — enraging Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto so much in a February phone call that he called off a visit to Washington this month after the U.S. president would not agree to back off that demand.
But the issue of paying for the wall remains contentious in Congress, where even supporters say the federal government will have to pay to build it — and it will be up to Trump to figure out the tricky part of how to get Mexico to reimburse the U.S.
How much will Congress allocate for the wall? The administration has pegged the amount needed at $25 billion overall for the wall project, which will take years to build.
In the short term, Congress is mulling spending $1.6 billion on the wall, including 60 miles in Texas, as part of legislation to keep the government funded through Oct. 1. The deadline to pass that bill is March 23. It’s not clear whether Democrats, who have been strongly opposed to a border wall, are willing to concede the wall spending measure to avoid another government shutdown.
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, R-Laredo, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, asked by the American-Statesman about his position on the wall, said, “dead set against it.” At the same time, Cuellar has worked with U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, on advancing a plan to expand levee wall along the Rio Grande in South Texas that also would control flooding. “That one we can live with,” Cuellar said.
“Democrats are loath to give the president the political victory of funding the border wall,” said Rice University political science professor Mark Jones. But with polls showing Democrats have a chance to win back the House in November, he said their strategy looks increasingly like a waiting game.
‘This was not just another promise for President Trump; it was the most important promise. The wall is a physical manifestation of Trump’s vision of a winning America.’ Brandon Rottinghaus Political science professor at the University of Houston