Trump makes stop in Yuma

Visit put focus on wall, border patrol

President Donald Trump spent less than two hours near the U.S.-Mexico border on Tuesday, but the intent of his brief visit was clear: Walls work, and it’s time to build one along the Southwest border.

Trump never said those words, at least not publicly, during his stopover Tuesday at the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, where he met with border agents and viewed equipment they use to patrol the area.

But his administration was eager to get the word out.

Multiple efforts to get the wall funded and built this year have run into numerous stumbling blocks. Despite it being one of his signature campaign promises, Trump has little to show for it seven months into his presidency.

Several administration officials spoke on and off the record about the visit to Yuma, making the case that Congress needs to fund Trump’s proposal to build the wall. This part of the border, they claim, is the textbook example of why walls — or on this case, fencing — are effective.

“Undoubtedly, Yuma today is safer because of our investments,” Elaine Duke, acting secretary of Homeland Security, said in an opinion piece published by USA TODAY.

Their main argument stems from the Secure Fencing Act, the law then-President George W. Bush signed in 2006 that authorized the construction of 700 miles of fencing along the border.

The Yuma Sector, with only 5 miles of fencing before the law passed, was one of the first target areas.

“The existing fence was quickly lengthened, and we added second and third layers to that fencing in urban areas,” Duke wrote. “Lighting, roads and increased surveillance were added to aid agents patrolling the border.”

In the Yuma Sector, this resulted in a significant decline in the number of Border Patrol apprehensions — a reliable bellwether of immigration patters along the border.

This is not the first time the Yuma border has been held as a model for what works.

Previous administrations and government officials have repeatedly pointed to it. And they constantly bring up the numbers, usually in an effort to secure additional funding.

The same year Bush signed the Secure Fence Act, Customs and Border Protection said more than 118,000 people tried to cross the border illegally through the 120mile-long sector.