After yesterday’s meeting with the Senate Working Group on Immigration, Trump told reporters that before agreeing to any legislation enshrining DACA protections into law, Republicans would need to secure more resources for immigration officers, provisions to stop visa overstays and – crucially – legislation limiting chain migration, a topic that Trump has tweeted about regularly since the Halloween terror attack on Manhattan’s West Side Highway.
And as the administration braces for the upcoming battle over US immigration policy, they’re asking Congress for $18 billion to build 700 miles of new and replacement barrier along the southern border over the coming decade.
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Construction on the prototypes for Trump’s wall has been completed, and the Department of Homeland Security is ready for next steps: If approved, that would be a major expansion from the 654 miles of barrier now, bringing the total to nearly 1,000 miles, about half of the entire southwest border.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the plans are laid out in a document prepared by the Department of Homeland Security for a group of senators who asked the administration to detail its request for border security. The document was described to The Wall Street Journal by two people who had seen it. Presumably, WSJ’s sources attended Thursday’s working group meeting.
In total, the administration details about $33 billion in desired new border-security spending, including funding for technology, personnel and roads. The document refers to this as “critical physical border security requirements.”
President Trump’s proposed border wall was in many ways the essence of the 2016 Trump campaign. In many ways, it factored into his rhetoric from the beginning, almost immediately after Trump descended the golden escalator in Trump Tower to declare his intention to run way back in June 2015.
Trump routinely described his pet infrastructure project as a “big, beautiful wall” that would rise over the southern border, preventing illegal immigration and drug trafficking. Furthermore, Trump promised that the project – some estimates placed the cost at close to $70 billion – would be paid for by Mexico. Yet so far, Congress hasn’t agreed to spend any money on the project, and Mexico has repeatedly said it won’t fund it.
But the document cited by WSJ is perhaps the first comprehensive vision of what the wall will look like, if completed.
The document, from the Customs and Border Protection agency at the Department of Homeland Security, envisions the border-wall project unfolding over 10 years. If carried out as described, by 2027, about 970 miles of the 2,000-mile southwest border would have some sort of fencing or wall separating the U.S. from Mexico.
It comes as lawmakers and the White House negotiate an immigration package that would legalize young undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, a group known as Dreamers. The White House has demanded that border security be included in the legislation, and last month a group of GOP senators asked for details of what the White House is seeking.
Of course, the document isn’t a complete representation of the administration’s immigration demands – which also include changes in laws and policy. The paper also cautioned that support for the border wall is tepid, even among Republicans.
The document isn’t meant to be a complete outline of the administration’s requests, which also involve changes to the legal immigration system and other enforcement measures, an administration official said. Rather, it details only the border-security elements.
Congressional support for the border-wall idea is tepid, with Democrats and even many Republicans opposed on either financial or symbolic grounds. But lawmakers in both parties support other types of increased border security.
In addition to the wall-related funding requests, the White House and its partners in Congress are also seeking $5.7 billion over five years to pay for towers, surveillance equipment, unmanned aerial vehicles and other technology; $1 billion over five years for road construction and maintenance; and $8.5 billion over seven years for 5,000 new Border Patrol agents and other personnel. The administration has already requested $1.6 billion for 60 miles of a new barrier in Texas and 14 miles of replacement fencing in San Diego for the current fiscal year. Congress hasn’t passed the spending bills for 2018, and wall funding is one of the hang-ups.
The administration’s new document doesn’t detail where the additional miles of barrier would be constructed beyond 2018. It refers to the barrier as a “wall system,” though Trump and lawmakers have at times said they would accept “a fence” or a “see-through wall.”
As we noted late last year, by leaving several controversial provisions – including an immigration deal – out of the continuing resolution passed just before Christmas, Republicans effectively set themselves up for a grueling legislative calendar early this year, as the battle over DACA, the re-authorization of a controversial surveillance program and the long-term fate of a popular children’s health-insurance program must be resolved in the coming months.
Aside from that, Trump is pushing to pass his $10 trillion infrastructure plan which was whispered about late last year – before the mid-term elections.
Is this so secret no title or author?
During the presidential campaign, I don’t EVER recall Trump saying that he’d trade Democratic votes for wall funding for DACA amnesty. All I remember is Trump saying he’d build a wall and Mehico was going to pay for it. So he’s backpedaling on the Mehico funding part and completely
bending over to Democrats on a DACA trade. Democrats– like sharks– can smell blood in the water. The Blonde Don is turning into the whipped redhead stepchild.
Backpedaling?
Maybe we should wait till something gets done before we say that.
Why is he asking for congressional funding? That’s backpedaling away from his original
stance– which was Mehico was going to pay for it. Okay, so let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and say congressional approval for U.S. taxpayer funding is only a stopgap measure UNTIL the Mehicans pay for it. So why doesn’t he say that? Because he’s gone weak, that’s why.
Ever price stockade fence for your yard? Runs 100 bucks per 8 feet diy. 200 for a pro. Same price for 6 feet of vynil fence. Or about 200 grand a mile if you used mexicans. Or about 40 million to do a six foot vinyl fence along most of the border. What manner of fence costs 70 billion along that same length? Thats more than 1000 times the cost per six feet, or 200,000 bucks per 6 measly feet of fence. Let me go out on a limb and offer to do it for half. You could build an uninterupted wall of townehouses for less, and give each occupant a .38 to repel invaders for less. Relocate our inner city negroes living in poverty out to their brand new border homes where they will be employed defending our border for less mony than welfare costs. Like 3 birds with one stone.
One that works at keeping people from crossing it easily.
This is fun and I could entertain myself for hours.
Oh, good… I found my JDAWGS picture.
700 miles seems insufficient, but we can probably handle most of the rest with snipers for now.
Actually, there is at least one section guarded by a sniper. In 2004 or 2005, my buddy served on JTF North down in TX with the US Army. There, they spent about a month, or so, on deployment guarding the border in support of the border patrol. During that, they busted illegals and hauled in a mountain of drugs. One of the stretches of border, they were warned, there was a hermit living in a cabin who frequently fired on illegals, creating a known area of No Mans Land where you didn’t go, lest you get shot. They figured he had taken out about 25+ illegals there. I wonder how many others are out there?
Mr. Trump, put up that wall.
Read “Fred on Everything” about the practical aspects of putting up a wall of any size across the border.
It will prove – in two minutes – the we can’ even afford it, much less do it.
muck
Fred lives in Mexico and I have read his false justifications against the wall several times. Those of us that live in the border states know that the US needs the wall as well as other protections against illegal alien infiltration. If it were just Mexicans coming across the border, it would be one thing. However, there are myriad instances where Muslim terrorists are coming across the Mexican border hidden in the groups of Mexican. There are so many aspects of why we need the wall that it would take an encyclopedia to detail them all.
If not for anything else it is a statement of U.S. sovereignty: we SHOULD do it AND we CAN
do it.
Other countries with less resources than ours seem to be able to do it with their borders.
“It will prove – in two minutes – the we can’ even afford it, much less do it.”
It did no such thing. It was an infantile treatment of the topic at best.
Can we afford it? No, not really but when has that ever stopped us?
Can we do it? Not even a problem, are you kidding me? It’s a fucking concrete wall. It ain’t putting a colony on Mars. What kind of engineer says shit like this?
Fred is f****** stupid, Muck. He doesn’t know the first thing about construction.
Fred’s post is dishonest and idiotic…Here is a simple rebuttal..https://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2018/01/proof-tequila-rots-brain.html
And I usually like Fred’s stuff, but he is totally looney tunes on the border, no doubt influenced by his Mexican/Jewish wife.
Found more fraud. It’s basically everywhere you look. I’ve been finding it all my life. I was wondering, is there anyone who has not found government fraud at least a few times a year?!
Census claims that property tax payments were $488 million.
https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=SLF_2015_00A1&prodType=table
Andrea – seriously, are you that incredibly stupid? Even I am stunned at the breathtaking stupidity you exhibit.
That is $488 BILLION. Those figures are shown as ‘000s. There is a little tab top right showing notes, where this fact is clearly explained, just for dolts like you who have zero idea how to read data. The stupid, it burns. And you write articles using your too stupid for words reading of data. You confuse liability for expenditure, billions for millions. Can you even count to ten? Do you take off your shoes to count to twenty?
You do not know the diffeence between liability and expenditure, and have no idea how to read data. Just stop it. You are embarrassing yourself.
Oh, so there is more than one innumerate moron around here, whoever thumbed down my comment that dumbo Andrea cannot read data. She writes articles where she clearly is misreading data, same way she misinterprets the data she spouts above.
It is disgraceful folks are so stupid. Admin needs to implement an IQ requirement around here to weed out the imbeciles.
@Llpoh I have looked at large numbers for 40 years. First of all, my screen is not displaying what you claim. Secondly, if that is the case, it is traditional that on the chart, it would say in thousands. I’ve been looking at things like this for decades. I do not see what you are claiming either.
And oh, there is nothing on the Fed or treasury which listed employee pension expenditures. It listed entitlements.
Yes. I know the difference between a liability and an expenditure, and I’m wondering why a self proclaimed accounting wizard like you is not questioning why expenditures are not listed, if the entitlements for 2013 were not the expenditures, and what year the liabilities went into. In other words, if what you claim is true, this creative accounting was nothing but a total waste of time, paper, and cloud storage. But hey, what would I know, other than that I managed a store, ordered all of the merchandise, and did all of the bookkeeping myself.
I reserved creativity for the arts, not math, like you did.
It is the kind of accounting that leaves 50% or more of the equation to the imagination. It is whatever you want it to be.
Andrea – seriously, there is a little button tab thing near top right. It clear explains it is in 000’s. As a rule, govt data of this sort is in thousands. I cannot remember a time it was not. It is convention. You could also deduce this if you were unsure by looking at the totals line.
If you are going to make argument based on data, at least get the data itself right. Because seriously it makes you look stupid.
I am likely the best person at math you have come across in your entire lifetime, and that is no joke. I am a savant with this stuff, and can spot flaws in data analysis a mile away. My accountants turn to me when they are in a bind, not the other way around, as do customers, suppliers, random acquaintances. I see math patterns like most people see colors. If I say there is a problem with the numbers, you can be pretty damn sure of it. I could solve advanced algebraic problems in second grade.
I do not care whether you post. You can likely add value.
But stop the horseshit where you advertise your site. Want to post articles, ask the admin. But it is classless and offensive what you are doing.
Nope. It is not as a rule listed in thousands. I’ve been on Fred and treasury websites for a long time and reading world almanacs gov stats since I was about twelve. It always says if it is listed in thousands, millions, or billions. I’m not going to be intimidated by a lying dope like you. If you aren’t lying, you don’t know what you are talking about.
My screen does not show thousands.
You imbecile. It is called “table notes”. Clearly identified. When you press it it explains.
Checked for the third time. No arrow, and here is proof of how full of it you are! As you see, it clearly states on the page, listed in billions!
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GDP
Scroll down the page half way to see chart listing in billion a at top of chart:
https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/sm0184.aspx
That is a graph, not numerical,data. The numbers on the data you,posted are thousands, and is detailed under the button I described. Idiot.
Not wasting my time anymore on a stupid lying fraud like you anymore, Rainman, but I highly doubt that you are the most gifted person in math that I would ever encounter. I come from a family full of mechanical, civil, electrical engineers and accountants , and my dad majored in economics. I even got an A in economics, so I’m nowhere near as stupid as you are trying make people believe. I can do it in my sleep.
Oh shit, I think she just called LLPOH a liar.
Andrea, the link is at the top right labeled “View Table Notes”
Fifth row down you will find that the data is shown in $1000 increments.
You are dead wrong about the pension thing too. Those figures were NOT for payments made.
Stick to art; you’re not cut out for numbers.
Oh, and you owe Llpoh a big apology.
Rdawg – thanks for the verification. I tried to talk calmly to her. She is too stupid to understand the most basic of things. She cannot read data, much less interpret it.
Her position on the pensions is so far off it is laughable. She obviously dredges into those tables looking for anomalies but has not the mental acumen to be able to see them. As I said, she cannot even spot that a set of figures are liabilities as opposed to expenditure. She cannot read the most basic tables and understand that the figures are in thousands, not dollars. And then disputes it is general convention that such tables are posted in thousands.
Her stupid, it runs all the way to the core.
Again, thanks for the verification.
Muck proves one again with age doesn’t come wisdom.Can’t afford a wall or a fence.They can afford everything else like why mice shit in groups. Muck why do mice shit in groups? The government ” Researchers” R going to tell us shortly.
BB….that was my general thinking.
Unless they cut non-discretionary expenditure, America will be unable to afford to shit soon enough, singly or in groups. It is becoming increasingly hard to come up with dicretionary monies of any amount.,
Why can’t the DACA just submit an application for citizenship to the INS like everybody else that comes here? Why are the Democrats demanding we grant special citizenship procedures for the children of illegal Democrat voters? Don’t they already get driver’s licences, get to vote, get in state colleges and loans as citizens; submit the damn forms to the INS, STFU and get a job.
Bob, you should STFU because you are talking out your ass. You make it sound easy; let them eat cake. The fact is that they, like their parents, have no avenue for legalization. The parents are liable for deportation due to illegal status.
These ‘kids’ are also eligible for deportation but they are making a hail Mary claim to have been innocents brought here not of their own device, or as my son in law said, ‘against my will.’ If they are picked up by ICE, they will be deported to a birthplace they don’t recognize. That isn’t as horrible as it sounds, the scary part is leaving the big BX behind. Meh.
I said that after they milked the shit out of the promise of immigration reform (16 years; 8 Bush and 8 Obama years), the bait morphed into DACA to keep the Hispanics voting Democrat. Do you think the Demos are just going to let a valuable voting bloc walk?
You are aware that calling Yukiko a cocksucker isn’t as offensive as you may think.
I find it revolting. I feel like Stuck did when he found out Zara was this 6′ hairy gorilla of a tight end playing for the Houston Texans.
Oh come on, you actually believe YoBo is a chick?
He’s just messing with you. Now, you could make the argument that he’s a closet fag based on his obsession with “POZZING”, and gays and all that.
Personally I’m hoping he gets lost outside and ends up like Jack Nicholson in The Shining.
Meanwhile the welfare state will continue to attract the parasite from everywhere else, including south of the border, the problems will continue, and America will continue to get poorer and poorer. Why does NOBODY wish to deal with the truth that it is the WELFARE state that is attracting them and that ending the welfare state would put hundreds of billions BACK into our pockets and virtually eliminate the need for any walls whatsoever? Or do too many simply benefit from the welfare state to want to have an honest discussion??
A wall is nothing more than an overpriced band-aid that does NOTHING about the root cause.
I never had hundreds of billions in my pocket to begin with. I don’t know why people fall for the line about ‘taxpayer’s money’.
Look, once the government appropriates it, collects it or spends it, it is government money. If you hear somebody say taxpayer money, roll up your pants legs, the shit is going to get deep.
Here’s how you know it isn’t your money; it gets spent on projects you did not vote for, the money goes to fat cats, it funds undeclared foreign wars.
Didn’t read the article, or comments. Im sick of this wall shit. So, so solly if I’m repeating something already said.
Russia has no problem keeping out peoples it doesn’t want. Neither does China. Or, Japan. They don’t need walls. They have the WILL POWER to protect their borders. We don’t, and a Fucken wall won’t change that.
Israel has a wall. Yet, they have too many black Immigrants. So, they’re gonna send them back. Or, jail them. Will power.
America currently has all the laws necessary to manage immigration. We don’t need a wall. Enforce current laws! Don’t you understand that?
——-
Alternative to a wall. Clear a half mile swath of land on our side of the border. Plant thousands, millions, whatever Land Mines. Cover it all with razor sharp barbed wire. That will stop 99.99% of border crossings … at a fraction of the cost … and probably will only take a couple years.
the army needs the work already paid for the shits in jail a ready work force a shoot to kill order would help but none will happen business want cheap labor and the shits in power have been brought off so good luck on any thing being done