Few in GOP support president’s quest to secure wall funding
President Trump has been adamant that he needs Congress to approve funding to start building his border wall, but Republicans on Capitol Hill are far less adamant about supporting it. When asked by the USA TODAY Network whether they support the president’s initial $1.6 billion budget request to begin construction, only 69 of the 292 Republicans on Capitol Hill said “yes.” Among the rest, three Republicans said they oppose the money, several evaded a direct answer, and the rest simply refused to respond to the question.
The USA TODAY Network asked the 534 members of the House and Senate whether they support the $1.6 billion down payment approved by the House and found less than
25% of Republicans willing to stand up for the plan.
The House approved
$1.6 billion in start-up funding as part of a broad national security spending package in July that included billions for
the border at only one point, accounting for a single parcel.)
All told, a network analysis shows, about 4,900 parcels of property sit within 500 feet of the border in Texas.
Most Texas land is privately owned, a fact that could complicate and delay efforts to build a wall in a state that reveres private-property rights.
There is no public map of exactly where, or how far, a border wall would run.
Some of the wall would surely be on land owned by the federal government, such as levees. But the 4,900-parcel swath gives a sense of the massive land seizure and cost that the federal government could face.
IS SUCH A SEIZURE FEASIBLE?
After the 2006 Secure Fence Act, federal officials pursued private land in Texas for border fences. More than 300 condemnation cases were brought against landowners, according to data compiled by the network.
Some cases were settled for as little as a $100 easement. In one, the United States paid $5 million for 6 acres. Many have yet to be settled.
As of summer 2017, nine years after the first cases were filed, 85 of the more than 300 cases were still in litigation. Some landowners died fighting their cases through the system.
People will be ready to fight for just compensation, said Terence Garrett, chair of the Public Affairs and Security Studies Department at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley.
Based on what happened the last time, he predicted about 20% of people would accept what the government offered; 80% would not.
“Here we are in a decade and the judge still has eminent domain cases pending in his court,” Garrett said. “It’s really a thicket, if you will, of all kinds of legal problems. We are looking at years — decades — of court cases.”
AN UNPRECEDENTED SURVEY
In summer 2017, journalists from the USA TODAY Network flew, drove and explored every foot of the nearly 2,000-mile international border to document what exists and to examine how or whether a wall could be built and what impact it would have.
The network team used aerial footage from its helicopter flight of the entire border, along with published federal records, satellite maps and on-the-ground checks of GPS locations, to build the most current, comprehensive map of visible fencing along the U.S.-Mexican border. The digital map allows users to pick any spot on the map and see video footage of the line as it was in summer
2017.
The mapping shows that despite years of construction and more than $2 billion, much of the border is not fenced.
Where fencing exists, it’s full of gaps.
About 650 miles of the 2,000mile border are fenced, leaving
1,350 miles open. Of that 650 miles, about half is designed to stop vehicles, not people. The
300-plus miles of vehicle barriers, X-shaped crossbars or short steel posts, block cars. These
fences often sit in harsh deserts that make crossing deadly. But anybody on foot can cross over, under or through.
This means only about 350 miles of the 2,000-mile border has fencing meant to stop people.
Much of the border sits hundreds of miles from the nearest big city. Building walls would require constructing roads to get there.
In Texas, the fencing sometimes is close to the river and sometimes can be more than a mile away. Big chunks of property in the USA sit on the “other” side of border fences.
WHAT WE KNOW
Congress plans to discuss initial funding for the wall this fall.
The USA TODAY Network asked all 534 members of the House and Senate whether they support the president’s initial $1.6 billion budget request to begin construction and found less than 25% of Republicans willing to stand up for the plan.
When asked by the network whether they support the funding, only 69 of the 292 Republicans on Capitol Hill said “yes.” Three Republicans said they oppose the money, several evaded a
direct answer and the rest refused to respond.
There is no cost-benefit analysis for what a border wall should accomplish or what cost is acceptable. Government analyses show that officials never established a measure to determine whether current fences are effective.
It’s unknown how many miles of wall would be built or in what locations or what type of construction would be used.
In August and September, months behind schedule, Homeland Security officials announced six construction companies had won bids to build wall prototypes of two varieties, one using concrete with “see-through features” and one of “alternate materials.”
The prototype designs have not been made public, but they would be 30 feet long and up to 30 feet tall. The Department of Homeland Security waived 37 environmental laws and regulations to build the prototypes and replace border infrastructure along a 15mile stretch of the U.S.-Mexican boundary near San Diego.
Trump’s description of the border wall has shifted over time. During his campaign, he indicated the entire border would be walled, but he said later that only 1,000 miles required a wall. In July 2017, he said the border might need 700 miles of wall.
The nature of the wall was fluid as well. Initially, he said the wall would be new construction and usually referred to it as concrete, unlike the current steel fences. In a news conference in February, Trump said, “We are going to have a wall that works, not going to have a wall like they have now which is either non-existent or a joke.”
More recently, Trump’s statements indicate he may consider the existing fences to be part of his wall plan.
His remarks in July included this: “We’re fixing large portions of wall right now.”
In January, Trump’s executive order on border security called for a comprehensive study of how to secure the border, due in 180 days.
It mandated a “strategy to obtain and maintain complete operational control” of the international boundary.
No such review has been publicly released, and it’s unknown whether it was completed.
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
Reporters spent six months canvassing the border and found:
uThe debate over the wall comes as border crossings de
cline. Based on Border Patrol apprehension data, illegal traffic on the border is at its lowest point in four decades. It has fallen consistently since 2000, and in many areas is at a tenth of its peak levels.
uThe number of migrants found dead in the desert is rising. Trends show that as border security tightens, migrants will venture to more dangerous areas to cross, driving the death rate up even if crossings decline.
uFencing may inhibit drug trafficking, but it won’t stop
it. The San Diego area has some of the most secured and fenced border in the USA, but it is also where agents find the most drug smuggling.
uBorder ranchers want more security. They said a wall has to be guarded, or it is simply a speed bump for illegal crossings. uNati►e Americans who occupy traditional lands that straddle the border said they ’ll fight a border wall. Such a barrier could block members from services and disrupt sacred pilgrimages.
uFamily members of victims killed by border bandits or others without legal status
support a wall. They said it might have stopped the crimes that claimed their relatives. uBiologists said the jaguar would become extinct in the USA without a connection to Mexico. Only five jaguars have been photographed in Arizona since 1996, none definitively verified as female. Building a wall could end the connection to the female jaguar population and any chance for jaguars to re-establish themselves naturally in the USA.
uProduce growers in Mexico said any new tariffs on their exports would be ultimately paid by U.S. consum
ers. Mexico provides much of America’s fresh produce, especially tomatoes, and growers said any increased tariffs would raise prices.
uA human smuggler told the USA TODAY Network that a wall wouldn’t stop people from trying to cross. It would allow him to charge more money to help undocumented immigrants across the border.
“It’s really a thicket, if you will, of all kinds of legal problems. We are looking at years — decades — of court cases.” Terence Garrett,
University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley