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President Donald Trump continues to say that his signature promise of 2016 – the construction of a US-Mexican border wall – is on track and that hundreds of kilometers will be completed by the end of this year. by 2020, the time has come for voters to decide whether to re-elect him to the presidency. The songs at his rallies went from "building the wall" to "finishing the wall".
Despite Trump's repeated chants and assurances that a boundary wall is under construction, the results so far do not reflect his election promise.
Before Trump became president, 654 miles from the US border, almost 2,000 miles, had major barriers. To date, this has not increased.
To date, the administration has replaced about 60 miles of dilapidated gates with a new fence. And a major component of Trump's promise – that Mexico would pay for the wall – is not part of the equation. US taxpayers have borne the costs.
Building a border wall was not as easy as Trump could have hoped. Some key questions hinder his commitment:
• Opposition of Democratic Legislators who say that the wall is inefficient and that the allocation of funds is useless;
• Unsuccessful negotiations with Democratic legislators to get money for the wall in return for the protection of the so-called "Dreamers";
• Part of the property along the border is privately owned and some Texans do not want to give it to the wall.
• None of the wall prototypes that the administration paid contractors to build in 2017 met all the requirements of the US Customs and Border Protection.
Trump did not build a shining sea wall, but he is still looking for ways to hinder, while giving the impression that his promise is already taking shape. Earlier this year, citing an "invasion" at the border, he declared a national emergency in order to get money from the army budget for the construction of the wall. Congress did not give him the money he wanted.
The Customs and Border Protection Service told PolitiFact that since January 2017, the agency had received about $ 6.2 billion for the construction of 334 miles of "new wall system". This includes steel barriers, all weather roads, lighting, cameras and other surveillance technologies.
About 224 of these 334 miles would have new barriers instead of existing structures. Up to now, about 60 miles of replacement barriers have been removed. The $ 6.2 billion comes from the departments of Homeland Security and Defense and the Treasury Confiscation Fund.
Trump sometimes seemed to recognize that what was created was not the widening of the barriers envisioned by his supporters and detractors.
"When we completely destroy and replace a badly damaged and dilapidated barrier on the southern border, which can not work, Fake News Media gives us no credit for building a new wall. kilometers from the old barrier by powerful new walls! "Trump tweeted July 22 and sent a similar message tweet One day later.
Overall, Trump also spoke less about Mexico paying for the wall, although in January he falsely claimed that Mexico would pay through a renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement. .
Immigration and border security experts told PolitiFact that a border wall – or a replacement fence – would probably not stop the recent wave of immigrants and illicit drugs traveling to the United States from southern border.
The majority of opioids smuggled across the border pass through official entry points. And marijuana smuggling between entry points has declined in recent years, with some places in the United States legalizing its use for medical and recreational purposes.
Most of the people now arriving at the border are families who are looking for border patrol officers to go and ask for asylum. They do not try to sneak up.
"It's just not likely that this border wall will have a significant impact on the total amount of immigration," said David Bier, an immigration policy analyst at Libertarian Cato Institute. When barriers were removed in the past, people found new routes, he said.
Cristobal Ramón, Senior Policy Analyst of the Bipartisan Policy Center's Immigration Project, told PolitiFact that the premise of a border wall was stuck in a mentality from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, while A large number of single Mexican men were looking for a job and were trying to escape the immigration authorities.
The 2006 Secure Fence Act was adopted in response to this immigration flow, Ramón said. He authorized the construction of a fence along 700 miles from the US-Mexico border.
"I think the wall is fighting the battle of yesterday," Ramón said. "The idea that if you build a wall, you deter immigration is a short-term vision, because it does not take into account that people who arrive are moving over time."
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which promotes low levels of immigration, said Trump had used the wall issue effectively to take advantage of voters' frustration with the application immigration legislation. Krikorian said that one of the weaknesses of this terrain is that Trump has endowed Democrats with a weapon to use against him: the ability to deny him money for the wall.
"Given the headwinds against which the president is pushing, I think they have made useful progress," Krikorian said. Barriers are an important tool, but not the only solution against illegal immigration. It also requires more immigration judges and more border staff, he said.
"Accelerated hearings could also help reduce illegal immigration," said Gil Kerlikowske, Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection under the Obama administration and a law professor at Northeastern University. If people are returned to their country shortly after arrival – instead of taking this referral process for years – it could be a deterrent to those who are also considering coming illegally, he said.
According to Kerlikowske, a border wall is an "incredibly simplistic answer to a complex problem".
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