In the course of his presidential election campaign, Donald Trump had promised to build a border wall and had also indicated that Mexico would bear its cost. The intention of the wall was to prevent entry of illegal immigrants and drugs from Mexico. However, the president has now admitted that funding will not come from Mexico at the moment, and U.S. taxpayers will have to chip in to make the wall a reality.
Is the wall really necessary?
According to Washington Times, some lawmakers have brought out a relevant point about the need for the border wall because, as per information available, there has already been a drastic drop in the number of people trying to cross over through the southwestern border.
In the opinion of the Trump administration, this drop is a result of the firm stand taken by President Donald Trump. His attitude has forced illegal immigrants from Latin America to reconsider their decisions, but the wall would still be needed to maintain the momentum.
Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly has confirmed the need to build the wall, and it must be technologically sound with adequate agents. He made the comments while he was on a tour of the border in El Paso, Texas with Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
What will the wall look like?
The specifications of the border wall have been defined. The height of the prototypes must be at least 18 feet, and the preferred height is 30 feet.
It must be able to withstand breaching attempts for up to four hours and must appear to be imposing.
Senate Democrats have already released a report which mentions that the wall could stretch 1,827 miles, or most of the way across the 1,950-mile border, and the cost would come to nearly $70 billion. Homeland Security officials, however, termed the assessment as baseless and have added that unless the design and locations are finalized estimates cannot be predicted.
Who will provide the funds?
The million dollar question is the source of finance to undertake a project of this magnitude. The White House wants money for the border wall to be an integral part of the spending bill that Congress must pass next week. This demand is seen as an about turn of the administration because it had already indicated availability of money to build prototypes this year and further requirement of cash could wait till next year.
Under the circumstances, it would be worthwhile for Donald Trump to look again at the requirements and defer it until an alternate is worked out. There is a necessity to have a mechanism to prevent the entry of illegal immigrants and drugs into the United States through the Mexico route, but the objective should be to achieve it through alternate means which will involve the least investment.