⏩ Border visit:
In his first public appearance since a mob of his supporters stormed Congress, President Trump extols his efforts to curb immigration.
ALAMO, Texas — President Trump traveled to the U. S. Mexico border Tuesday, trumpeting one of the pillars of his presidency: his campaign against illegal immigration and construction of a border wall.
It was Trump’s first public appearance since a violent mob of his supporters stormed the nation’s Capitol last week in an effort to halt the peaceful transition of power.
In Alamo, Trump said the wall has been crucial for securing the border, and ending “immigration chaos” despite the chaos his administration created with its child separation policy and attempted travel bans.
Before he spoke, Trump used a Sharpie to once again sign his autograph on a plaque on the wall.
Alamo is named after the San Antonio mission where a small group of Texan independence-fighters fended off Mexican forces during a 13day siege. Most of them died, but the mission became a symbol of resistance for Texans, who eventually defeated the Mexican army.
Trump’s visit there — no doubt a symbol of the president’s defiance — comes as he spends the final days of his presidency isolated, aggrieved and staring down the prospect of a second impeachment.
In Texas, he delivered remarks highlighting his administration’s efforts to curb illegal immigration and the progress made on his signature 2016 campaign promise: building a “big, beautiful wall” across the length of the southern border — an imposing structure made of concrete and reinforced steel. But over
time, Trump demanded modifications that have been largely rejected: He wanted it painted black to burn the hands of those who touched it; he wanted it adorned with deadly spikes; he even wanted to surround it with an alligatorfilled moat. While he promised that it would be funded by Mexico, U. S. taxpayers ended up footing the bill.
In the end, his administration has overseen the construction of roughly 450 miles of border wall construction — likely reaching 475 miles by Inauguration Day. The vast majority of that wall replaces smaller barriers that had already existed, though the new wall is considerably more difficult to bypass.
Over the past four years, Trump and his administration have taken extreme — and often unlawful — action to try to curb both illegal and legal immigration. Their efforts were aided in his final year by the coronavirus pandemic, which ground international travel to a halt. But the number of people stopped trying to cross the southern border illegally has been creeping back up in recent months. Figures from December show nearly 74,000 encounters at the southwest border, up 3% from November and up 81% from a year earlier.
A few dozen Trump supporters rallied hours before his visit. They planned to stage a caravan of vehicles flying flags that support the president and farright causes like the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Trump warned that a reversal of his policies by Biden would bring about a “tidal wave of illegal immigration.”