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It talks about how much the wall would cost, potential problems, and their take on Mexico paying for it.
Slightly Liberal
(Statistics, Loaded Words, Repetition

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President Donald Trump's plans to build a wall along the United States' southern border is inflaming relations between the United States and Mexico. It's a contentious issue, considering the border wall would cost billions of dollars.

On Thursday, Trump threatened to cancel a meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, after Peña Nieto reiterated that Mexico would not pay for it.

On Thursday, Senate leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, said Congress will follow through on Trump's border wall order, and McConnell estimated it will cost $15 billion at most - he cited a range of $12 billion to $15 billion.

The U.S. border with Mexico is roughly 2,000 miles long and underlines four states, from California to Texas, more than half of it along the Colorado River and Rio Grande. It is a massive stretch of land - the Berlin Wall spanned just 96 miles comparatively, and it cost about $25 million to build in 1961, or around $200 million with inflation.

Building a wall to keep out illegal immigrants is not a novel plan. About 670 miles of fencing on the U.S.-Mexico border was completed in accordance with the Bush administration's Secure Fence Act of 2006. That alone cost about $2.4 billion, for roughly one-third of the entire border and, according to migration experts, some of the easier and less costly areas to fence.

The Secure Fence Act called for 700 miles of fencing, with a double layer throughout, but much of the barrier isn't reinforced this way. Even before the fence reached its first stage of completion, some argued it was not being constructed properly.

"It's a lot more expensive than we expected when we started, and it was much more difficult," said Ronald Vitiello, deputy chief of border patrol for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, at a Senate Committee hearing in May 2015.

Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said in a January 2015 statement to right-leaning publication Daily Caller (founded by Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson and former Dick Cheney advisor Neil Patel) that "in our conversations with outside groups, experts and stakeholders, we learned that it would be an inefficient use of taxpayer money to complete the fence. ... We are using that money to utilize other technology to create a secure border."

Who foots the bill?

On the campaign trail Trump's immigration reform plan called for impounding remittance payments derived from illegal wages, a controversial idea, and imposing increased visa and entry fees to the United States from Mexico unless the latter agrees to finance the wall. Trump is also pushing border taxes more broadly against trading partners, which could help finance the wall.

According to a Government Accountability Office 2009 report, the cost to build 1 mile of fencing at the border averaged between $2.8 million and $3.9 million. But that figure may be low relative to costs for future sections of the wall. It's based only on the first 220 miles fenced and does not include other factors, such as topography, transportation logistics in harder-to-reach areas (i.e. road-building and earth and drainage work), labor costs, land acquisition costs and surveillance equipment.

"The first miles of fencing were in the easiest" places, said Marc Rosenblum, deputy director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute. These were fencing areas in or close to cities and accessible transportation, rather than deep in deserts or mountains. Additionally, the first miles were on public lands, while completing a border wall would require the government to acquire land from private holders. The GAO estimate for one difficult section of fencing near San Diego was $16 million.

"I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I'll build them very inexpensively - I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." -President Trump, speaking last year on the campaign trail

One aspect of the wall debate more important than the cost is its worth. The migration expert Rosenblum said fencing in remote areas of the United States isn't likely to achieve the goal of a more secure border.

"It's not necessary to have a pedestrian fence in places where the infrastructure doesn't support people walking toward the border," Vitiello said in his May Senate testimony.

Trump's Department of Homeland Security chief, John Kelly, said in recent Senate testimony, a "physical barrier will not do the job." He went on to say it can be part of a strategy. "If you build a wall, you would still have to back that wall up with patrolling by human beings, by sensors, by observation devices."

Border walls work in densely populated areas - such as Israel's wall in the West Bank - where slowing down a person trying to illegally enter by five or 10 minutes can make a difference to border patrol. But when the migrant trying to enter is traveling over remote mountains and deserts for three days, using a fence to slow them down by a few minutes doesn't have the same effect - it borders on the trivial, Rosenblum said.

"There is a reason people don't build fences in the middle of nowhere; it doesn't change the enforcement profile in the middle of nowhere," the migration expert said. "The existing fence has worked because of where it is, near populated areas. Both Democrats and Republicans have testified that they have the fencing they need," Rosenblum said.

Gerard Malie | AFP | Getty Images

The actual cost for the rest of the border wall (roughly 1,300 miles) could be as high as $16 million per mile, with a total price tag of $15 billion to $25 billion. Rosenblum said the $15 billion low-end estimate is "probably an underestimate," because the parts that have yet to be fenced are the most difficult - the most dense and arid. At $16 million per mile and with 1,300 miles to secure, the estimated cost would be $12 billion, and the price of private land acquisitions and maintenance of fencing could push that total cost higher.

The U.S. government would have to pay to maintain the wall, which could cost as much as $750 million a year, according to an analysis conducted by Politico. And then if it wanted to man it with personnel, that would be an additional cost - border patrol has an operating budget of $1.4 billion for 21,000 agents.

"The need to maintain, repair and replace outdated and aging fencing will continue to be an issue," Vitiello said during his Senate testimony given in May.

In addition to the 2009 GAO estimate of price per mile, more recent spending data is now available from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). From fiscal 2007 through fiscal 2014, $5.9 billion in total appropriations was awarded by Congress to the Border Security Fencing, Infrastructure, and Technology Account (BSFIT). The account covers fencing, along with associated infrastructure, including roads to install and maintain fencing and cameras to monitor fencing.

"This is actually the best way to think about the real costs of installing/maintaining fencing," Rosenblum said. "A fence is useless without a camera to tell you when someone has climbed over it."

From fiscal 2007 (when the U.S Customs and Border Protection BSFIT account was created) through fiscal 2014, the Department of Homeland Security installed and maintained 512 miles of fencing, on top of 140 previously existing miles. If all of the $5.9 billion went to new installation, the rate per mile would be $11.5 million. If spread out to cover the full 652 miles, the estimate would be $9 million/mile.

Rosenblum said most of the BSFIT money and fence installation occurred between fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2010. During that period, DHS installed 507 miles of new fencing, with $4.5 billion appropriated to the BSFIT account. If all the money went to new fencing during this period, the price per mile would be $8.9 million. While there is a discrepancy between the BSFIT high-end estimate ($11.5 million/mile) and earlier GAO estimate ($16.6 million/mile), Rosenblum said that, in the least, the higher numbers from both agencies are more relevant to the sections of border fencing still to be built than the GAO estimate for the initial sections at between $2.8 million and $3.9 million.

"The cost of building a permanent border wall pales mightily in comparison to what American taxpayers spend every single year on dealing with the fallout of illegal immigration on their communities, schools and unemployment offices," according to Trump's website, though it doesn't put an actual figure on either expense.

There's one more aspect to Trump's plan that could make it even costlier - he is talking about a wall, not a fence. If he really means what he says, "the price would go up quite a bit," Rosenblum said. The existing border "wall" is actually fencing and, in some areas, not even fencing but vehicular barriers.

- By Kate Drew, special to CNBC.com

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Donald Trump's controversial border wall could cost upwards of $15 billion

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President Donald Trump's plans to build a wall along the United States' southern border is inflaming relations between the United States and Mexico. It's a contentious issue, considering the border wall would cost billions of dollars. On Thursday, Trump threatened to cancel a meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, after Peña Nieto reiterated that Mexico would not pay for it.

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Trump hasn't had a good January but raised interest rates, even though he still isn't getting funded for the wall.
Liberal
(Loaded Words, Statistics)

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By

Getty Images

Trump has won the war against Fed Chairman Powell.

President Donald Trump hasn't had a terribly good January. But he is closing the month with one victory.

After losing the shutdown battle against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the president can claim victory in another high-stakes confrontation.

He's pushed back for months against Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, and the central bank more broadly, for raising interest rates.

Read: 'Patient' Fed adopts wait-and-see stance as Powell says case for higher rates 'weakens '

On Wednesday came total surrender. The Fed is done hiking rates - even suggesting, after a hike in December - December - that the next move could be lower.

The Fed has started a process to taper the balance-sheet runoff by way of a special statement.

Powell was asked if the tightening cycle was over. "We're going to know in hindsight," he replied.

Now, OK, there were other factors besides Trump's persistent complaints leading the Fed to its new stance. For one, the stock market had a petulant sulk, dipping into correction territory.

Trump's trade war has derailed the China growth story and the U.S. exporters who rely on the world's second largest economy for revenue growth.

The Brits can't seem to agree on an orderly path out of the European Union. The U.S. just had its longest government shutdown on record. Inflation readings, and measures of inflation expectations, have receded a bit.

So Powell can declare that he and his Fed colleagues are just, to borrow a phrase he employed a few times, "doing the right thing," and there's evidence to support him.

All that said, Powell could have looked at the same information and not budged so much. Remember the proclivity for his predecessors, Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen, to use the word, "transitory." The Fed doesn't have to react to a single month's turbulence.

Powell could have looked at all these "crosscurrents," to use another word he employed, and also seen a U.S. economy that added 312,000 jobs in December and possibly some 200,000 more in January.

For sure, it would have been ill-advised for the Fed to hike interest rates here. But Powell was under no obligation to reverse course so thoroughly.

1600 Pennsylvania Ave. hasn't rung up many victories, but it can claim a notch here.
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Trump couldn't get his border wall but is getting a sea of Fed liquidity

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By President Donald Trump hasn't had a terribly good January. But he is closing the month with one victory. After losing the shutdown battle against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the president can claim victory in another high-stakes confrontation. He's pushed back for months against Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, and the central bank more broadly, for raising interest rates.

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this talks about how the border wall would work and that it would be successful.
Conservative
(Bandwagon, Statistics)

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File photo (Photo: Journal & Courier)

Over time you hear politicians in many instances are incompetent and worthless. What people don't appear to consider is the citizens of U.S. are responsible for who governs.

For reasons not easily known, the people of San Francisco have voted for Nancy Pelosi forever; she really has not accomplished much, but is very good at getting elected and buying her leadership role. She confounds when telling the president, "I can't support a wall; it would be immoral." That's silly.

How do you explain Pelosi saying that we should pass Obamacare so then we'll know what it is. Or, that sanctuary cities are safer than cooperating with ICE in apprehending criminal illegals. She sounds irrational to me. It puts more citizens at risk of violent attacks by illegals.

Democrats and the left fear a wall or barrier will work, so they play politics to delay and stop it. Barriers have almost stopped illegal traffic at El Paso, San Diego and Yuma. That's why the Border Patrol is for more barriers.

What bothers me and makes my blood boil is when the left and much of the news media say that illegals don't commit as many crimes as natives do. Even if that were true, and I don't believe it is, it is our government's responsibility that no American citizen should be a victim of illegal criminals. This means the southern border must be controlled. In my view President Donald Trump is the first president since Dwight D. Eisenhower to make a sincere effort to control the southern border.
Bud Cordes Lafayette Your turn
Submit letters to the editor of 250 words or fewer to editor@jconline.com or to 823 Park East Blvd., Lafayette, IN 47905. Please include your name, town and phone number, for confirmation purposes.

Read or Share this story: https://www.jconline.com/story/news/2019/01/31/letter-how-can-they-say-border-wall-doesnt-work/2731723002/

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Letter: How can they say a border wall doesn't work?

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File photo (Photo: Journal & Courier) Over time you hear politicians in many instances are incompetent and worthless. What people don't appear to consider is the citizens of U.S. are responsible for who governs.

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A wall is a wall is a wall.

President Donald Trump has been pretty consistent about that since he began campaigning for the White House. He has vacillated on the material to be used in its construction, but the fervor of his base and the jabs of Fox News commentators keep Trump wedded to a big, beautiful, physically imposing barrier to stop immigrants from crossing our Southern border. So the federal government continues to be shut down over his insistence on many billions to fund his wall.

But it's been apparent for a while that the wall Trump promised will not be built. Certainly, Mexico ain't spending a dime on it. Most Americans, including many Republicans, don't want it. Democrats will never sign off on it, and they now control the House. And the border can be better protected for less money by spending more on drones and cameras and by hiring more border agents and judges to quickly adjudicate immigration and asylum claims.

If Trump wants to make a deal, he will find that House Democrats as well as Senate Republicans share his concern for a more secure border. That can be achieved without building a wall, and Trump will have to acknowledge it. Congress and the administration must open an official investigation into the recent deaths of two Guatemalan children in U.S. custody. What we don't need in 2019 are any more remarks of the kind delivered recently by Rep. Peter King, who tried to minimize those tragedies by comparing them with the deaths of children in New York City housing projects. That was cheap and insensitive; we expect more of him.

We also expect everyone involved in the political posturing fueling this stalemate to recognize that the border never will be as secure as it could be without truly comprehensive immigration reform to bring some sanity and fairness to a troubled and broken process. Also needed: more investments in troubled Central American nations to end the violence there and create more economic opportunity.

Trump's back is to the wall, and he won't move the nation forward by blaming anyone else.

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Editorial: Beyond the wall, find real answers

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A wall is a wall is a wall. President Donald Trump has been pretty consistent about that since he began campaigning for the White House. He has vacillated on the material to be used in its construction, but the fervor of his base and the jabs of Fox News commentators keep Trump wedded to a big, beautiful, physically imposing barrier to stop immigrants from crossing our Southern border.

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President Trump launched his campaign in 2015 promising, "I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words."

Before long, supporters were chanting, "Build the wall!" and Trump was leading them in a call and response. Who will pay for the wall? Mexico.

He told rally-goers that a lot of politicians said it wouldn't be possible to get Mexico to pay for it. "It's going to be so easy; it's going to be so easy," Trump insisted at the time.

Times have changed. Mexico still hasn't paid for it, and the GOP-controlled Congress is debating yet another short-term government funding bill that doesn't contain the $5 billion in wall money over which Trump threatened a government shutdown just a week ago.

His conservative media allies are rebelling, including Laura Ingraham of Fox News, who tweeted Wednesday, "It was supposed to be a 'big beautiful wall' with a 'big beautiful door.' Now it's just an open door with no frame. Unreal."

All of this has Trump offering new and increasingly far-fetched explanations for how the wall will be built and how Mexico will pay for it.

Claim 1: Mexico is paying

In a tweet on Wednesday, Trump offered a new pitch for how the border wall will get done: "Mexico is paying (indirectly) for the Wall through the new USMCA, the replacement for NAFTA! Far more money coming to the U.S.," he wrote. "The United States Military will build the Wall!"

Mexico is paying (indirectly) for the Wall through the new USMCA, the replacement for NAFTA! Far more money coming to the U.S. Because of the tremendous dangers at the Border, including large scale criminal and drug inflow, the United States Military will build the Wall!
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2018

Fact check:

Trump talks about the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement, or USMCA, like the new trade agreement is already in place. It isn't.

It still has to be ratified by Congress and the legislatures in Mexico and Canada. So, the president's claim that far more money is coming into the U.S. couldn't possibly be true at this point. But will it be true in the future?

"There is no guarantee that on a net basis this trade agreement will produce more economic benefits for the U.S. than NAFTA did in the past," said David Gantz, a law professor at the University of Arizona who focuses on trade agreements. "We don't know yet, and we won't know for several years."

Gantz said when NAFTA was approved, backers oversold the economic benefits to the U.S. And while he argues there are some good improvements and updates in the USMCA, they aren't expected to supercharge economic growth in the U.S.

Asked about possible economic growth as a result of the USMCA bringing in more tax revenue, Monica de Bolle, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said, "We have no guarantee that that would happen including because the USMCA is first of all not all that different from NAFTA."

At the White House press briefing earlier this week, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to explain how the USMCA would pay, even indirectly, for the wall. Here's the exchange:

Sanders: "We're talking about additional revenue that wouldn't have existed without the president getting a new deal."

Reporter: "Have you done the math on that? That -"

Sanders: "There are - there have been a number of things that we've looked at in which we know will have additional revenue that comes in through the USMCA."

Reporter: "Twenty-five billion from the USMCA into the Treasury?"

Sanders: "We think we'll have - we think there will be more than that that comes in."

It's not clear where her math is coming from, though. The White House Council of Economic Advisers hasn't studied the expected economic impacts of the new trade deal yet, and neither has the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which led negotiations.

If Trump and Sanders are referring to revenue from tariffs, economist de Bolle points out that wouldn't be coming from Mexico, either.

"If you are collecting more revenues, it's because you're making your own consumers pay more for something that they were paying less for before," she said. "You're making the Treasury better off at the expense of your own consumers. It's not at the expense of some other country. It's not."

Claim 2: The military will build the wall

Trump also claims that "because of the tremendous dangers at the Border, including large scale criminal and drug inflow, the United States Military will build the Wall!"

This raises two questions: 1. Does the military have the authority to build the wall? 2. Does it have the money to build the wall?

Fact check:

Earlier this month, in an email to NPR's Tom Bowman, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jamie Davis addressed the question of legal authority:

"To date, there is no plan to build sections of the wall. However, Congress has provided options under Title 10 U.S. Code that could permit the Department of Defense to fund border barrier projects, such as in support of counter drug operations or national emergencies."

As for the funding, that is a much stickier challenge.

"This is not going to happen," said Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who specialized in military budgeting.

Here's why he is making such a bold prediction: "For the military to build the wall, that would qualify as a military construction project, and there's not any money currently appropriated for this - certainly not $5 billion," he said.

So, let's say the president decided the military should take money already set aside for something else and use it to build the wall instead - that would require approval from Congress. Harrison says all the relevant committees in both chambers would have to approve shifting, or "reprogramming," the funds. There are also caps on just how much money can be moved that way.

"If any one of those committees says no, you can't do it," Harrison said.

He has a hard time imagining those committees signing off.

"It would be coming at the expense of other priorities in the military," Harrison said. "Even if they agree with the wall, they would say, 'Hey, don't take our money to pay for it. This money is intended for the military. That's what it was approved for, and that's what we want it to be used for.' "

The process would be the same if the Trump administration wanted to shift funds to the wall from other agencies as well. Congress controls the purse strings.

And that only becomes a harder sell once Democrats take control of the House and the relevant committees in January.

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FACT CHECK: Mexico Isn't Paying For The Border Wall, Military Unlikely To Build It

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President Trump launched his campaign in 2015 promising, "I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." Before long, supporters were chanting, "Build the wall!" and Trump was leading them in a call and response.

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The Wall - An in-depth examination of Donald Trump's border wall

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A USA TODAY NETWORK special report examines the impact of Trump's proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall, exploring every foot of the 2,000-mile boundary.

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President Donald Trump's plans to build a wall along the United States' southern border is inflaming relations between the United States and Mexico. It's a contentious issue, considering the border wall would cost billions of dollars.

On Thursday, Trump threatened to cancel a meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, after Peña Nieto reiterated that Mexico would not pay for it.

On Thursday, Senate leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, said Congress will follow through on Trump's border wall order, and McConnell estimated it will cost $15 billion at most - he cited a range of $12 billion to $15 billion.

The U.S. border with Mexico is roughly 2,000 miles long and underlines four states, from California to Texas, more than half of it along the Colorado River and Rio Grande. It is a massive stretch of land - the Berlin Wall spanned just 96 miles comparatively, and it cost about $25 million to build in 1961, or around $200 million with inflation.

Building a wall to keep out illegal immigrants is not a novel plan. About 670 miles of fencing on the U.S.-Mexico border was completed in accordance with the Bush administration's Secure Fence Act of 2006. That alone cost about $2.4 billion, for roughly one-third of the entire border and, according to migration experts, some of the easier and less costly areas to fence.

The Secure Fence Act called for 700 miles of fencing, with a double layer throughout, but much of the barrier isn't reinforced this way. Even before the fence reached its first stage of completion, some argued it was not being constructed properly.

"It's a lot more expensive than we expected when we started, and it was much more difficult," said Ronald Vitiello, deputy chief of border patrol for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, at a Senate Committee hearing in May 2015.

Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said in a January 2015 statement to right-leaning publication Daily Caller (founded by Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson and former Dick Cheney advisor Neil Patel) that "in our conversations with outside groups, experts and stakeholders, we learned that it would be an inefficient use of taxpayer money to complete the fence. ... We are using that money to utilize other technology to create a secure border."

Who foots the bill?

On the campaign trail Trump's immigration reform plan called for impounding remittance payments derived from illegal wages, a controversial idea, and imposing increased visa and entry fees to the United States from Mexico unless the latter agrees to finance the wall. Trump is also pushing border taxes more broadly against trading partners, which could help finance the wall.

According to a Government Accountability Office 2009 report, the cost to build 1 mile of fencing at the border averaged between $2.8 million and $3.9 million. But that figure may be low relative to costs for future sections of the wall. It's based only on the first 220 miles fenced and does not include other factors, such as topography, transportation logistics in harder-to-reach areas (i.e. road-building and earth and drainage work), labor costs, land acquisition costs and surveillance equipment.

"The first miles of fencing were in the easiest" places, said Marc Rosenblum, deputy director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute. These were fencing areas in or close to cities and accessible transportation, rather than deep in deserts or mountains. Additionally, the first miles were on public lands, while completing a border wall would require the government to acquire land from private holders. The GAO estimate for one difficult section of fencing near San Diego was $16 million.

"I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I'll build them very inexpensively - I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." -President Trump, speaking last year on the campaign trail

One aspect of the wall debate more important than the cost is its worth. The migration expert Rosenblum said fencing in remote areas of the United States isn't likely to achieve the goal of a more secure border.

"It's not necessary to have a pedestrian fence in places where the infrastructure doesn't support people walking toward the border," Vitiello said in his May Senate testimony.

Trump's Department of Homeland Security chief, John Kelly, said in recent Senate testimony, a "physical barrier will not do the job." He went on to say it can be part of a strategy. "If you build a wall, you would still have to back that wall up with patrolling by human beings, by sensors, by observation devices."

Border walls work in densely populated areas - such as Israel's wall in the West Bank - where slowing down a person trying to illegally enter by five or 10 minutes can make a difference to border patrol. But when the migrant trying to enter is traveling over remote mountains and deserts for three days, using a fence to slow them down by a few minutes doesn't have the same effect - it borders on the trivial, Rosenblum said.

"There is a reason people don't build fences in the middle of nowhere; it doesn't change the enforcement profile in the middle of nowhere," the migration expert said. "The existing fence has worked because of where it is, near populated areas. Both Democrats and Republicans have testified that they have the fencing they need," Rosenblum said.

Gerard Malie | AFP | Getty Images

The actual cost for the rest of the border wall (roughly 1,300 miles) could be as high as $16 million per mile, with a total price tag of $15 billion to $25 billion. Rosenblum said the $15 billion low-end estimate is "probably an underestimate," because the parts that have yet to be fenced are the most difficult - the most dense and arid. At $16 million per mile and with 1,300 miles to secure, the estimated cost would be $12 billion, and the price of private land acquisitions and maintenance of fencing could push that total cost higher.

The U.S. government would have to pay to maintain the wall, which could cost as much as $750 million a year, according to an analysis conducted by Politico. And then if it wanted to man it with personnel, that would be an additional cost - border patrol has an operating budget of $1.4 billion for 21,000 agents.

"The need to maintain, repair and replace outdated and aging fencing will continue to be an issue," Vitiello said during his Senate testimony given in May.

In addition to the 2009 GAO estimate of price per mile, more recent spending data is now available from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). From fiscal 2007 through fiscal 2014, $5.9 billion in total appropriations was awarded by Congress to the Border Security Fencing, Infrastructure, and Technology Account (BSFIT). The account covers fencing, along with associated infrastructure, including roads to install and maintain fencing and cameras to monitor fencing.

"This is actually the best way to think about the real costs of installing/maintaining fencing," Rosenblum said. "A fence is useless without a camera to tell you when someone has climbed over it."

From fiscal 2007 (when the U.S Customs and Border Protection BSFIT account was created) through fiscal 2014, the Department of Homeland Security installed and maintained 512 miles of fencing, on top of 140 previously existing miles. If all of the $5.9 billion went to new installation, the rate per mile would be $11.5 million. If spread out to cover the full 652 miles, the estimate would be $9 million/mile.

Rosenblum said most of the BSFIT money and fence installation occurred between fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2010. During that period, DHS installed 507 miles of new fencing, with $4.5 billion appropriated to the BSFIT account. If all the money went to new fencing during this period, the price per mile would be $8.9 million. While there is a discrepancy between the BSFIT high-end estimate ($11.5 million/mile) and earlier GAO estimate ($16.6 million/mile), Rosenblum said that, in the least, the higher numbers from both agencies are more relevant to the sections of border fencing still to be built than the GAO estimate for the initial sections at between $2.8 million and $3.9 million.

"The cost of building a permanent border wall pales mightily in comparison to what American taxpayers spend every single year on dealing with the fallout of illegal immigration on their communities, schools and unemployment offices," according to Trump's website, though it doesn't put an actual figure on either expense.

There's one more aspect to Trump's plan that could make it even costlier - he is talking about a wall, not a fence. If he really means what he says, "the price would go up quite a bit," Rosenblum said. The existing border "wall" is actually fencing and, in some areas, not even fencing but vehicular barriers.

- By Kate Drew, special to CNBC.com

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Donald Trump's controversial border wall could cost upwards of $15 billion

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President Donald Trump's plans to build a wall along the United States' southern border is inflaming relations between the United States and Mexico. It's a contentious issue, considering the border wall would cost billions of dollars. On Thursday, Trump threatened to cancel a meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, after Peña Nieto reiterated that Mexico would not pay for it.

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Congressional Republicans don't love the idea of President Trump declaring a national emergency to secure funding for his border wall. But GOP lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol signaled they wouldn't do anything to try and stop or shame him.

During the month-long government shutdown, Trump dangled the possibility he would bypass Congress to get $5.7 billion for the wall by declaring an emergency, which would open up special sources of funding for the executive branch.

With the shutdown now over, Congress has until February 15, when the current government spending bill expires, to reach a deal on border security. If lawmakers fail, or if they come up with a package he doesn't like, Trump has said-once again-that he will declare an emergency in order to free up the resources to begin border wall construction.

Some Republicans have openly fretted about what such a declaration would mean in the long term. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said the move would establish a precedent that would make it easier for a future Democratic president to enable aggressive action on climate change, for example.

But many Republican lawmakers hinted that they'd live with the declaration rather than raise a stink over it.

"I'm not recommending it, it's not my preferred choice," said Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA). "But I, unlike some of my colleagues, don't believe it'll be the end of Western order if he does it."

For GOP lawmakers, fear over the prospect of empowering a future Democratic president or further contributing to the legislative branch's ineptitude has been overshadowed by concerns about another bruising shutdown fight or a border security deal that leaves their base dissatisfied. Among them, the prospect of Trump declaring a national emergency is being embraced as the least bad of plainly bad outcomes in the event Congress' legislative efforts fail again.

"It institutionally weakens Congress a great deal, and that's already happened too much," Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) said of an emergency declaration. But he still maintained that the option should not be off the table. "I don't think you unilaterally disarm," he said.

Virtually all Republicans on the Hill believe that the president does have broad authority to declare an emergency, noting that Trump's predecessors have exercised that authority, mostly during times of war. However, past national emergency declarations have been occasionally overruled by the courts, and it's inevitable that Trump would get hit with lawsuits challenging the legality of any emergency declaration to build the border wall.

Legal experts have said that the White House could prevail in a long-term court battle over the emergency declaration. But several lawmakers predicted a lower-court judge would block it first, delaying the administration's ability to use emergency funds to start constructing the wall.

"I have no doubt that the opponents have already drafted hundreds of petitions and they'll file one with every district judge in the 9th Circuit until they find someone who will issue a unilateral injunction, which is horrible on its face," said Kennedy, referring to the west coast U.S. appeals court that has stymied several Trump administration initiatives.

Two Senate Republicans expected to face the most competitive re-election challenges in 2020 did not push back on Trump's emergency declaration card, reflecting the continued pressure that many GOP lawmakers continue to feel to support the president.

"He will say what he's going to say," Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) said of the president's emergency rhetoric. "Let's focus on reaching a deal."

Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) predicted the declaration would get "tied up in court" and called on Congress to "do its job."

The only GOP lawmakers willing to oppose the idea of an emergency declaration when asked by The Daily Beast were the House's most devoted libertarian and the only House Republican who represents a district that borders Mexico.

Rep. Will Hurd (R-TX), whose district spans much of Texas' border with Mexico, said on Monday "it would be a bad idea to call a national emergency."

On Monday, Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) slammed the idea of a national emergency declaration on Twitter, saying Trump "can't claim emergency powers for non-emergency actions whenever Congress doesn't legislate the way he wants."

Amash told The Daily Beast his tweets speak for themselves. "I think it's unfortunate for our country if Republicans who have stood for limited government capitulate on this issue just because it's a Republican president."

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Republicans Give Trump the Green Light for a Border Wall Emergency Declaration

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Congressional Republicans don't love the idea of President Trump declaring a national emergency to secure funding for his border wall. But GOP lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol signaled they wouldn't do anything to try and stop or shame him.

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Not clear how US would get money from border wall fundraiser
SLIGHTLY CONSERVATIVE
(false statistics)

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A border patrol officer stands guard along the U.S.-Mexico border February 7, 2018 in San Ysidro, California. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

An Air Force veteran racked up millions more dollars on his fundraising page for President Donald Trump's U.S.-Mexico border wall, but it remained unclear how the U.S. government would get the money.

Brian Kolfage's GoFundMe page has raised more than $16 million as of Monday morning to build the wall, whose funding was threatening a partial government shutdown. The crowdfunding page, which was launched less than a week ago, has a goal of $1 billion.

In a statement on the page, Kolfage assured contributors that the fundraiser was not a scam and that he had contacted the Trump administration about how to deliver the money.

White House officials did not immediately return an email seeking comment Friday.

Citizens can mail money as "gifts to the United States," according to the U.S. Treasury Department. But it's not clear whether the Department of Homeland Security can accept gifts.

Kolfage of Miramar Beach, Florida, wrote that donors would get a refund if the fundraising goal isn't met.

The page has brought attention to Kolfage, a triple amputee who was wounded in the Iraq War in 2004, and his social media history.

NBC News reported that Kolfage operated a Facebook page called "Right Wing News" and sites that promoted conspiracy theories. He told the news outlet that he didn't mention the page because he "didn't want it to be a distraction."

"That shouldn't be the focus. My personal issues have nothing to do with building the wall," Kolfage said.

He told The Associated Press in an email Thursday that he worked on "Right Wing News" but the rest of NBC's story "is not true."

Kolfage did not respond Friday to multiple requests for comment from the AP.

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Not clear how US would get money from border wall fundraiser

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An Air Force veteran racked up millions more dollars on his fundraising page for President Donald Trump's U.S.-Mexico border wall, but it remained unclear how the U.S. government would get the money. Brian Kolfage's GoFundMe page has raised more than $16 million as of Monday morning to build the wall, whose funding was threatening a partial government shutdown.

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Questions why Trump is selling bogus claims and suggests it could be for a movie.
Liberal
(Loaded words, Anecdotes).

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When making his case for a giant border wall, Donald Trump has turned to a variety of strange talking points. At a White House event earlier this month, for example, the president marveled at the quality of the vehicles used by human traffickers

"[T]hey have unbelievable vehicles. They make a lot of money. They have the best vehicles you can buy. They have stronger, bigger and faster vehicles than our police have and than ICE has, and the Border Patrol have."

About a week later, Trump published a tweet intended to raise public anxieties about activities at the U.S./Mexico border.

"Border rancher: 'We've found prayer rugs out here. It's unreal.' Washington Examiner People coming across the Southern Border from many countries, some of which would be a big surprise."

Last week, the Republican turned to one of his go-to stories, which he's peddled many times.

"Human traffickers - the victims are women and children. Maybe to a lesser extent, believe or not, children. Women are tied up. They're bound. Duct tape put around their faces, around their mouths. In many cases, they can't even breathe. They're put in the backs of cars or vans or trucks."

It's tempting to dismiss all of this as just another round of nonsense from a president who too often has no idea what he's saying, but in this case, these three Trump talking points have two things in common.

First, they're demonstrably false. There's nothing especially amazing about smugglers' vehicles; there's no evidence at all of prayer rugs being found in the dirt by the border (in fact, the whole idea is kind of silly); and experts have marveled at how bizarre Trump's claims are about women tied up with tape.

Second, each of these appeared in a recent fictional movie.

No, seriously. As Rachel noted on the show last night, there's a movie called Sicario:
Day of the Soldado, which was released last summer, and which included a woman being tied up with tape, smugglers driving vast vehicles, and officials finding prayer rugs in the dirt near the border.

Again, just so we're all clear, the movie is real, but the story is fictional. The script was written by screenwriters, not documentarians. The plot of the film is made up, as are the characters and developments that unfolded on screen.

As Rachel added, "In a normal administration, it would be insane to suggest" the president of the United States saw stuff in a movie and maybe thought it reflected reality. And who knows, maybe it's just a coincidence.

But let's not miss the forest for the trees: Donald Trump's observations about the border are so at odds with reality that there are reasonable questions as to how in the world he even came up with such strange ideas.

I can't say with any certainty whether the president took a fictional movie a little too seriously, but that's not really the point. Rather, what matters is that we're left to wonder how and why Trump comes up with these stories, which he peddles to the public, despite being wrong.

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Has Trump peddled bogus claims about the border because of a movie?

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When making his case for a giant border wall, Donald Trump has turned to a variety of strange talking points. At a White House event earlier this month, for example, the president marveled at the quality of the vehicles used by human traffickers "[T]hey have unbelievable vehicles. They make a lot of money.

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trump campaign manager privately pushes president to hold firm on border wall fight - cnnpolitics

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Trump campaign manager privately pushes President to hold firm on border wall fight

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President Donald Trump's campaign manager is pushing him to hold firm in his ongoing battle with Democrats over funding for a border wall with Mexico.

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Congressman verbally abusing trump over government shutdown and border wall.
SLIGHTLY LIBERAL
(bandwagon, name-calling)

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Nearly one month into a partial government shutdown over President Donald Trump's demand for border wall funding, his refusal to budge is prompting some strong language from the country's frustrated legislators.

In an appearance on MSNBC Thursday, Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) didn't mince words.

"We are ready to take up any legislation that we think the president might sign or any legislation with sufficient votes to pass it without the president's signature," Kildee told host Katy Tur. "This is the president essentially being a man-baby."

Kildee calls Trump response to Pelosi request to postpone SOTU just the President "being a man baby all over again" pic.twitter.com/RtYWCV5D5z
- TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) January 17, 2019

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) sent Trump a letter Wednesday asking that he postpone the State of the Union address due to security costs, as both the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security have been "hamstrung by furloughs."

On Thursday, the White House sent Pelosi a letter of its own, not responding to her request, but rather postponing her scheduled delegation trip to Afghanistan by denying her use of a military plane. According to CNN, one White House official admitted the move was in retaliation for Pelosi's letter.

Tur asked Kildee if he thought the White House's move was a "good-faith effort" to encourage further negotiation by keeping Pelosi in Washington.

"It's ridiculous," Kildee said.

As of Thursday, the U.S. government shutdown was in its 27th day.

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Congressman: Donald Trump Is 'Being A Man-Baby' Over The Shutdown

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Nearly one month into a partial government shutdown over President Donald Trump's demand for border wall funding, his refusal to budge is prompting some strong language from the country's frustrated legislators. In an appearance on MSNBC Thursday, Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) didn't mince words.

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Liberals that do support the border wall.
LIBERAL
(cartoons, loaded words)

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CLOSE

It is not very often that President Trump's wishes align with the wishes of liberal-minded people like me, but when they do it bears noting and taking time to consider the possibilities generated by that alignment.

President Trump wishes to live behind a 30-foot high wall, and he wants people other than himself (preferably Mexican citizens) to pay for it. Occasionally, the president has even suggested that the wall be topped with barbed wire (to prevent would-be rapists and criminals from crossing it), and again, his wishes align with the wishes of liberal-minded people like me.

That might seem a bit unusual, even foolhardy to suggest, but really, it's not! According to a survey of Americans conducted across the political spectrum in late 2016, almost 66 million Americans agreed with the need for President Trump to get a wall, and many were liberal Democrats like me who thought that America needed all the protection it could get. Yeah, that's YUGE!

There has been much discussion over the past two years regarding the kind of wall would satisfy the President's demands. In fact, eight prototypes have already been erected near the Otay Mesa port of entry in San Diego, California, just across the border from Tijuana, Mexico. If you Google "wall prototype images" you can take a look at them yourself.

The cartoonist's homepage, pnj.com/opinion (Photo: Andy Marlette, Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal)

If you ask me, those prototypes are aesthetically bland and fall short of the standards befitting a President like Trump. First of all, none of them are gilded in gold, so that's disappointing. Next, the all-cement versions look like an open invitation to graffiti artists on both sides of the border, and the last thing we need are graffiti artists messing with the border's natural beauty.

The vertical slat prototypes are similarly underwhelming. They remind me of the cheap vertical blinds that beach-front condo owners regularly install. Blinds like that have a habit of breaking whenever something bumps against them. I worry that a similar kind of wall at the border would allow drug cartels to slip their products through the slats with ease, and emaciated children from Central America could slip through, too. Both would provide bad optics for the President.

And it's not like there aren't better wall options available. Officials in Florence, Colorado have already built a prototype wall that fits all the elements demanded by President Trump. It's big and it's beautiful, and while it meets the height and protection requirements that Trump envisions, including barbed wire, its biggest selling point is that a person can actually look through the wall and gaze upon the majestic snow-covered peaks of the Rocky Mountains. It's the kind of view folks kill for.

Many of my liberal brethren were initially skeptical of Trump's campaign promise that Mexicans would pay for a wall, especially when the Mexican President at the time said, "That ain't happening!" (only in Spanish). Even today, many liberals question why President Trump had to shut down the U.S. government over a demand for a $5 billion dollar wall down-payment from Congress, when the money was supposed to come from Mexico. Shouldn't Trump be shutting down Mexico's government instead? I admit there's a certain logic to that way of thinking, but many of my liberal brethren simply do not get the fact that President Trump doesn't need logic or critical analysis to justify his decisions. His gut suits him just fine!

FOX news has reported that a GoFundMe campaign for the President's wall has already raised $17 million, which might sound like a lot of money, but that's just a drop-in-a-bucket given the $18 billion price tag that President Trump's wall carries. That amount also pales in comparison to what we liberals would raise to see the President's wish regarding the wall actually come true, if only he would log off Twitter long enough to act presidential and recognize that he's got more in common with Big Mack-eating liberals than he realizes.

President Trump has also been critical of Democratic opposition in Congress to a wall being built, but I think the President is overlooking the forest for the trees. Millions of liberal Democrats like me support a wall for Trump. I have personally spoken to 11 of my like-minded peers and we are of the unanimous conviction that President Trump should get the wall he deserves. In fact, all of us would volunteer to start digging the foundation if Congress would finally get busy and approve the money to build it!
Steve Zorbaugh lives in West Manchester Township.
Read or Share this story: https://www.ydr.com/story/opinion/2018/12/28/im-liberal-who-supports-wall-trump-column/2431247002/

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I'm a liberal who supports a wall for Trump (column)

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CLOSE It is not very often that President Trump's wishes align with the wishes of liberal-minded people like me, but when they do it bears noting and taking time to consider the possibilities generated by that alignment. President Trump wishes to live behind a 30-foot high wall, and he wants people other than himself (preferably Mexican citizens) to pay for it.

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Trump arguing with the establishment over the wall
HARDCORE CONSERVATIVE
(name calling, hyperbole)

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Nancy Pelosi still doesn't understand that there is, and has been, a new sheriff in town.

Instead, she and her, "deflect the blame game," socialist Democrats take zero responsibility for their actions as Washington endures the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

The game of chicken was made even more intense by a smug and arrogant Pelosi who thought she could tell the President of the United States to take a time out on his upcoming State Of The Union speech by either rescheduling or handing in his speech like a fourth-grade essay.

But Pelosi and company were quickly reminded who they were dealing with as they scheduled yet another trip to globe trot, while the shutdown lingers, this time to Egypt, Afghanistan, and the globalist stronghold in Brussels.

In an epic troll, President Trump postponed their trip.
Infowars version with live comments:

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Nancy Pelosi still doesn't understand that there is, and has been, a new sheriff in town. Instead, she and her, "deflect the blame game," socialist Democrats take zero responsibility for their actions as Washington endures the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

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Trump team has mixed ideas and opinions on the border wall.
CONSERVATIVE
(hyperbole)

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Trump Team Split on Border-Wall Strategy

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President Trump is being pulled in opposite directions over his way out of the partial government shutdown. His re-election campaign on Friday planned to have "red faux bricks" sent to Democrats.

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Trump's border wall may not go up due to the government shutdown.
SLIGHTLY LIBERAL
(loaded words)

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donald trump's border wall may have just crumbled forever - cnnpolitics

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Donald Trump's border wall may have just crumbled forever

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Eight days ago, President Donald Trump had this to say about the possibility of a government shutdown if Congress didn't give him $5 billion to begin construction on his border wall:

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The Latest: House approves wall funding as shutdown nears

SLIGHTLY LIBERAL
(hyperbole)

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on efforts to avoid a government shutdown (all times local):

7:58 p.m.

The Republican-led House has approved funding for President Donald Trump's border wall in legislation that pushes the government closer to a partial government shutdown.

The House voted 217-185, largely along party lines. The bill now goes to the Senate, where it has almost no chance of passing.

Senators already passed their bill to avert a shutdown by extending funds to Feb. 8. It did not include the wall funding.

Without resolution, government funding for various departments expires at midnight Friday.

Trump had given mixed signals on how hard he would push for $5 billion in border wall funds. But he dug in Thursday, telling House Republican leaders he wouldn't sign the Senate bill that didn't have the money.

__

6:42 p.m.

President Donald Trump will not travel to Florida on Friday for Christmas if the government is headed toward a partial shutdown.

That's the word late Thursday from two of Trump's senior advisers.

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters at the White House that Trump "will not travel in a shutdown."

Policy adviser Stephen Miller also says Trump will stay at the White House absent an agreement with Congress to keep parts of the government open.

Trump told House Republican leaders earlier Thursday that he will not sign Senate-passed legislation to keep parts of the government operating through early February because the measure does not include $5 billion he has demanded to pay for a wall he promised to build on the border with Mexico.

__

6:10 p.m.

The Republican-led House has voted to add $5 billion for a border wall with Mexico to a bill preventing a partial federal shutdown this weekend.

Thursday's House vote was a party line 221-179.

The next vote will be on whether the House will approve the overall bill. That is expected to be close.

The Senate late Wednesday approved a bipartisan compromise keeping government agencies open until Feb. 8. That measure had no wall money.

President Donald Trump said Thursday he would veto that bill and demanded wall money.

Even if the House approves the measure with the wall funds, it faces certain rejection in the closely divided Senate, where Democrats solidly oppose the wall.

Scores of federal agencies will close after midnight Friday night unless Congress passes legislation preventing that.

___

4 p.m.

President Donald Trump is defending his decision to risk a partial government shutdown as he demands money for his long-promised border wall with Mexico.

Trump says a "powerful physical barrier" is "essential to border security" and that "every nation has not only the right, but the absolute duty to protect its borders."

The president commented during a farm bill signing ceremony.

Earlier Thursday, he told congressional Republicans he wouldn't support a short-term spending measure passed by the Senate the night before. The government will partially shut down at midnight Friday unless there's a deal.

Trump says he's made his position "very clear" and that the package must include money for border security.

But he says he's willing to accept a steel slat barrier instead of the continuous concrete wall that was the central promise of his 2016 campaign.

___

2:10 p.m.

House Republicans are making a last-ditch attempt to add $5 billion for President Trump's border wall with Mexico to a government funding bill.

The third-ranking House Republican says the GOP majority will try to add that money along with disaster aid for hurricane and wildfire victims.

It's unclear whether the bill can pass the House. Asked what happens if the vote fails, Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise (skuh-LEES') says: "That's a negative attitude."

A partial government shutdown will begin at midnight on Friday unless the impasse is resolved.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is playing down the possibility of a shutdown. The California Republican says: "I think you'll find that we'll be able to move forward."

The Senate passed a short-term spending bill without the wall money on Wednesday evening. Trump has told Republicans he won't sign it.

___

1:35 p.m.

President Donald Trump has told congressional Republicans he "will not sign" a spending bill passed by the Senate to avoid a partial government shutdown Friday, and he's citing an impasse over money for a border wall with Mexico.

House Speaker Paul Ryan says after leaving a meeting with Trump at the White House that he and other leaders are going to go back to Capitol Hill to "work on adding border security" to the legislation.

Trump is facing a backlash from conservative supporters who've urging to him to stick with an earlier pledge to force a shutdown in hopes of securing money for his long-promised border wall.

The wall was the top promise of his presidential campaign.

___

1 p.m.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is urging President Donald Trump to ignore the advice of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, which is encouraging Trump to veto a stopgap spending bill that averts a looming partial government shutdown.

Conservatives oppose the bill because it doesn't include billions of dollars for Trump's long-promised border wall with Mexico - a central plank of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

Schumer says in a Senate speech that Freedom Caucus leaders have "no strategy at all" beyond shutting down the government.

And Schumer, in his own words, says a "Trump shutdown will not convince a single Democrat to support bilking the American taxpayer for an ineffective, unnecessary and exorbitantly expensive wall."

Trump has promised Mexico will pay for the wall, a claim Mexico rejects.

___

11:35 a.m.

The White House says President Donald Trump is meeting with Republican House members at noon Thursday as the fate of legislation to avoid a government shutdown hangs in the balance.

At issue is the president's demand for billions of dollars for his long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says that "at this moment, the president does not want to go further" on a proposed budget deal "without border security, which includes steel slats or a wall."

She says Trump is continuing to consider his options.

If there's no deal, there could be a partial shutdown at the end of Friday.

Trump already has lashed out at GOP leaders in Congress over the lack of wall funding in a short-term spending bill that passed the Senate on Wednesday. Trump's come under criticism from conservative supporters over the issue.

GOP leaders canceled a morning news conference as rank-and-file lawmakers indicated opposition to the stopgap spending measure.

___

10:55 a.m.

President Donald Trump is attacking Republican leaders in Congress, saying they haven't kept promises that he would get money for his long-promised border wall by year's end.

Trump says in a tweet that when he "begrudgingly" signed an earlier spending bill, he was "promised the Wall and Border Security by leadership. Would be done by end of year (NOW). It didn't happen!"

Congress is now trying to pass legislation that would avoid a partial government shutdown. While Trump has backed off a shutdown threat, he's coming under pressure from conservative allies to veto a short-term deal.

Trump spoke with House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday. One Republican says Ryan left a morning meeting of House Republicans to take a phone call from Trump. This Republican who wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the call and discussed it on condition of anonymity didn't know what was said.

-Associated Press writer Alan Fram.

___

12:10 a.m.

The question of averting a partial shutdown of the federal government has moved from the Senate to the House.

Senators late Wednesday approved by voice vote a measure that keeps the government funded to Feb. 8. The House is expected to vote on the measure before the midnight Friday deadline.

The measure doesn't include the money President Donald Trump has demanded for his proposed border wall with Mexico.

Trump still must sign a funding bill into law to avert a shutdown of some government agencies. While the White House has indicated that Trump is open to reviewing whatever Congress passes, the president hasn't weighed in on the stopgap measure.

Many Trump supporters are frustrated that he appears to have retreated on his shutdown threats over wall funding.

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The Latest: House approves wall funding as shutdown nears

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on efforts to avoid a government shutdown (all times local): 7:58 p.m. The Republican-led House has approved funding for President Donald Trump's border wall in legislation that pushes the government closer to a partial government shutdown. The House voted 217-185, largely along party lines.

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Largest single group of migrants ever tunnels under border wall
SLIGHTLY LIBERAL
(hyperbole)

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The largest single group of asylum seekers ever to cross into the U.S. tunneled beneath the border wall near San Luis, Arizona, on Monday, voluntarily turning themselves into Customs and Border Protection, according to the agency.

Interested in Immigration?

Add Immigration as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Immigration news, video, and analysis from ABC News.

Migrants can be seen marching toward Border Patrol agents by the hundreds, according to video obtained by ABC News. Smugglers dug a series of seven holes, only a few feet long beneath the steel border fence, with hundreds going beneath the wall and a smaller number clambering over it, according to CBP.

The fresh sand and scuff marks of shoes on the rusty steel were still there when ABC News visited the site on Thursday.

Yuma Sector Border Patrol

The agency says 179 of the record 376 people who crossed were children, including over 30 unaccompanied minors -- children under 18 traveling on their own.

The overall number of unauthorized crossings has plummeted since its peak in the 2001, when CBP logged about 1.6 million apprehensions, according to government statistics. However, the demography of those crossing has changed dramatically.

Parents with children now comprise over 80 percent of the total apprehensions of those crossing the 2,000-mile long border with Mexico. The vast majority of them, like the group near Yuma Monday, surrender immediately or seek out Border Patrol agents in order to begin the asylum process.

CBP Yuma Border Sector Chief Anthony Porvaznik said his unit needs better border barriers, but more urgently it needs funding to provide for these families.

"That's our No. 1 challenge that we have here in the Yuma sector, is the humanitarian problem," Porvaznik said. "As I mentioned, 87 percent of the apprehensions here are family units and unaccompanied alien children."

Yuma Sector Border Patrol

The mass crossing this week took place in a sparsely populated stretch of the border -- where an old model of border barrier rises about 12 feet from the sandy ground. The stretched agency only had three agents patrolling that 26-mile-long section of the border.

It took hours to process the families, most of which were sent to the area's chronically overcrowded central processing center in Yuma.

"In my 30 years with the Border Patrol, I have not been part of arresting a group of 376 people," Porvaznik said. "That's really unheard of."

On Thursday, hundreds of asylum seekers were being held in cinderblock cells with thick glass windows that overlooked a central bullpen where CBP agents worked to process them and provide humanitarian needs. The asylum seekers were separated into cells: fathers with sons, fathers with daughters, unaccompanied minors and mothers with children.

As in all such facilities, the CBP said it works to process them as quickly as possible, and provides basic medical care. Still, detainees eat, sleep and use the bathroom in the same room. Scraps of food mingled with silvery space blankets on the floor. In one cell, several boys had balled up the blankets into a makeshift soccer ball they were kicking around.

Yuma Sector Border Patrol

One man in the group said he left Guatemala eight days ago and made most of the trip by bus along with his 12-year-old daughter. They were planning to leave the processing center destined for San Diego -- plane ticket in hand.

The father said he saved about $5,000 to pay a coyote to quickly get them to the border. He left a wife and two younger daughters back in Guatemala. Next to them were a mother and two daughters on their way to Cincinnati, also from Guatemala. They too traveled by bus and the journey took about eight days.

Just two days after the group tunneled under the border wall in Yuma, the Border Patrol took in another huge group of migrants in New Mexico. The 247-person group, including unaccompanied minors, crossed near the Antelope Wells Port of Entry and immediately surrendered to authorities for processing.

The CBP said 24 large groups -- quantified as 100 or more -- have crossed the border near Lordsburg, New Mexico, just since Oct. 1, 2018.

ABC News' Ignacio Torres and Mark Osborne contributed to this report.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to say Customs and Border Protection.

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Largest single group of migrants ever tunnels under border wall: CBP

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The largest single group of asylum seekers ever to cross into the U.S. tunneled beneath the border wall near San Luis, Arizona, on Monday, voluntarily turning themselves into Customs and Border Protection, according to the agency. Add Immigration as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Immigration news, video, and analysis from ABC News.

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Border wall may have issues because of the government shutdown
LIBERAL
(hyperbole, bandwagon)

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Image

A Honduran migrant on Friday near Tijuana, Mexico, where a fortified barrier stands along the border with the United States. Credit Credit Daniel Ochoa De Olza/Associated Press

WASHINGTON - With a partial government shutdown stretching past Day 5, the impasse over funding a wall at the southwestern border has highlighted the debate over effective border security, with a breakthrough possibly hinging on a semantic argument: What is a wall?

Lawmakers will return to Capitol Hill on Thursday to resume negotiations over either a stopgap spending bill to reopen nine federal departments and several government agencies or broader measures to fund the government through September. But the White House and Democrats remain at odds over the $5 billion that President Trump is demanding for a wall, his signature campaign promise.

Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the majority whip, told House members on Wednesday that no votes were expected on Thursday. That signaled that the shutdown would almost certainly stretch through the weekend - and probably into the new year. More than likely, it will fall to House Democrats to pass legislation reopening the government when they take control on Jan. 3.
[How the shutdown affects federal departments.]
The president told reporters on Wednesday that he would do "whatever it takes" to ensure funding was provided for the wall he once bragged Mexico would pay for.

"We need a wall," Mr. Trump said during a visit to American troops in Iraq. "We need safety for our country. Even from this standpoint."

Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader who is expected to be elected speaker next week, told USA Today: "He says, 'We're going to build a wall with cement, and Mexico's going to pay for it' while he's already backed off of the cement. Now he's down to, I think, a beaded curtain or something. I'm not sure where he is."

Democrats say they have little reason to negotiate. The administration has spent only 6 percent of the $1.7 billion allocated during the 2017 and 2018 fiscal years for physical barriers on the border, they said. About $1.3 billion was designated in 2018 for different types of fencing in areas that would have covered about 96 miles, but rising costs have shaved off 12 miles.

With so little spent, Democrats argue, Congress has no business more than doubling this year's allocation. But a Republican aide said that all but $70 million of the money allocated in 2018 had been committed to border security projects.

Mr. Trump and his conservative allies are trying to paint their opponents as unwilling to invest in border security, while Democrats are working to draw a distinction between the current showdown and past border fights, when Congress approved billions of dollars in funding for hundreds of miles of fencing, barriers, drones and other measures to impede illegal immigration.

The current government shutdown is now the second-longest in U.S. history. So how does this happen and who is affected? Credit Credit Tom Brenner for The New York Times

A wall "would be spending an enormous amount of money that would not achieve the taxpayers' goal," said Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey and one of eight senators who negotiated a bipartisan immigration overhaul that passed the Senate in 2013.

"There is not a one-size-fits-all solution - a wall, slats, whatever - and nobody who has ever looked at this question has said that that is the solution," he added.

While a final decision has not been made, Ms. Pelosi will most likely seek a swift vote on the legislation the House spurned before funding lapsed: the Senate's stopgap spending bill would provide funding through Feb. 8, according to a House Democratic aide familiar with the negotiations.

Because next month will herald a new Congress, the Senate will have to pass it again. And there is no guarantee that Mr. Trump will sign it.

"We are still open to discussion," said Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the incoming chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. "I would say that the wall is the problem. Most people we talk to say the wall is a political answer to a problem that really requires a thoughtful, a more pragmatic response."

Whether Mr. Trump signs the bill might depend on whether he and Democrats can agree to disagree on what a border barrier is called. Democrats have accepted fencing in the past. Mr. Trump has taken to intermittently calling his barrier a wall or "aesthetically pleasing steel slats."

In Iraq, he told reporters he was planning on "going to the wall" on the Mexican border next year for a "ground breaking." He said he planned to visit the border before his State of the Union address, usually given toward the end of January.

It was one of a series of inscrutable statements from the president since parts of the government closed, furloughing 380,000 federal workers and forcing over 420,000 to work without pay. On Monday, he tweeted that he had signed a contract to build 115 miles of border wall in Texas, an odd pronouncement given that the Homeland Security Department ran out of money at midnight on Dec. 21. The department referred questions to the White House, which has yet to offer an explanation.

As the impasse continues, the president and other conservatives have pointed to previous votes - including the Secure Fence Act of 2006 and the Senate bill that Mr. Menendez helped negotiate - as evidence that Democratic objections are driven by spite for the president, not opposition to the policy itself.

Image

Central American migrants near the United States border in Playas de Tijuana, Mexico, last month. Credit Guillermo Arias/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

"Chuck Schumer and Senate Dems should support more border security - just like they have in the past," Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican Party, tweeted on Wednesday. "In 2013, every single Senate Democrat supported $46 BILLION, which included 700 miles of barrier with Mexico."

The existing fence, which Mr. Trump has started to claim was built under his administration, was actually begun under President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, and has steadily grown in fragments, said Wayne Cornelius, an immigration expert at the University of California, San Diego. Experts continue to question its effectiveness, even as it expands.

"The fact remains that border enforcement - especially the construction of physical barriers - has never kept determined migrants out of the country," Mr. Cornelius said in an email, describing the current system as an "elaborate obstacle course" for migrants seeking to enter the country illegally.

The $1.3 billion allocated for border security funding in the 2018 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, successfully passed the Senate with bipartisan support - and the president acquiesced angrily to signing it into law. That money, however, can be used only to replicate or improve existing fences on the border.

The spending bill that passed through the Senate Appropriations Committee with bipartisan support this year offered similar restrictions on the $1.6 billion the Trump administration formally requested. And Democrats are determined to maintain those restrictions once they take control of the House.

A senior Democratic aide said it was impossible to say whether the steel slats Mr. Trump has recently talked about would qualify as the fencing detailed in the bill, given the president's shifting descriptions of what he wants.

Mr. Trump's demand "doesn't comply with what the professionals at homeland security said they needed to secure the border," said Senator Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado. "There is an absolutely massive difference. It's as if he entered the policy debate believing what he says and not understanding how false his statements are."

Mr. Bennet this year helped put together the compromise that would have allocated $25 billion in wall money in exchange for offering legal residence to thousands of young immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children. Based on his interactions with the White House in the last year, he said he does not believe Mr. Trump actually wants a solution, merely an issue to use for political scores.

Some Republicans have dismissed the distinction between fencing and wall and said a wall could be an improvement to barriers along portions of the border.

Border wall prototypes in San Diego seen from Tijuana, where the current wall casts a shadow in the foreground. Credit Moises Castillo/Associated Press

"The hard line of the Democrats is ridiculous," said former Representative Jack Kingston, a Georgia Republican whose years on the House Appropriations Committee overlapped with a number of debates on border security. "You have to come to the table with something you want and something you're willing to give."

However, Mr. Kingston added, Republicans erred in not "continuously building the case for why a wall is important."

But in places where border fencing is already in place, there is confusion over whether a concrete wall could be an enhancement.

For years in San Diego, most residents have referred to the barrier there as a fence. But some have taken to calling it a wall, in a nod to the president's campaign messaging and the barrier's three reinforced layers of sheet metal, concrete columns and metal fence edged by razor wire.

"I'm not sure what more they could plan to do here; we have a pretty extensive border wall here already that dates back to Bush, when they raised the height and added more layers," said Serge Dedina, the mayor of Imperial Beach, who has spent his whole life on the border. "It has significantly changed already. As always with the border, it has nothing to do with reality. We're the safest beach city in San Diego County."

Denise Moreno Ducheny, a senior policy adviser at the University of California, San Diego's Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, condemned Mr. Trump's vision of a border wall as "a fourth-century solution to a 20th-century problem."

"If you are going to do more things to secure the border, do it with more intelligence, more technology," she said. "The whole idea that you are going to build a Great Wall of China between California and Mexico is just silly."

Some activists in California have used the word "wall" to describe the fencing for years, including Enrique Morones, who leads the group Border Angels, which leaves water and other aid for those crossing through the desert.

"When people hear fence, they think of it as something that you have with your neighbor, not something that has led to the deaths of thousands of people," he said, pointing to the number of migrants who have moved farther east to more treacherous terrain.

"President Bush, President Obama, they all reinforced what was already there," he added. "The only difference is they didn't think it was a major political win for them."

Emily Cochrane reported from Washington, and Jennifer Medina from Los Angeles. Nicholas Fandos contributed reporting from St. Louis.
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A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: When Is a Fence a Wall? An End to the Shutdown May Ride on the Answer. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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End of Government Shutdown May Depend on the Definition of 'Wall'

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WASHINGTON - With a partial government shutdown stretching past Day 5, the impasse over funding a wall at the southwestern border has highlighted the debate over effective border security, with a breakthrough possibly hinging on a semantic argument: What is a wall?

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talks about how the wall connects to the government shutdown
CONSERVATIVE
(false statistics, plain folks)

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One of President Trump's biggest campaign promises was his vow to build a wall along the country's southernmost border.

And that promise is now at the center of Trump's fight with Democratic leaders as he's insisted he's willing to let the government shut down if Congress doesn't approve funding for the wall.

Congress has yet to fund the wall, and Trump's demands that Mexico pay for it have gone nowhere. However, the president has seemingly evolved on what he's called the "big, beautiful wall," as he has contended a physical structure might not be needed "where you have rivers and mountains and everything else protecting" the border.

Read on for a closer look at Trump's proposed border wall by the numbers.

2015

Trump first proposed the border wall when he announced his presidential candidacy in June 2015. It was then that he made the controversial remarks about the people emigrating from Mexico.

"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best," Trump said on June 16, 2015. "They're sending people that have lots of problems ... They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists."

"I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me," Trump said. "I'll build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I'll have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words."

1,954

The continental border between the U.S. and Mexico stretches for nearly 2,000 miles. The land border reaches across four states: Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.

The entire border extends from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean.

5 billion

Trump wants Congress to approve $5 billion for the project, but Democrats are offering only $1.3 for border security.

"If we don't have border security, we'll shut down the government," Trump said on Dec. 11.

170,000

A Department of Homeland Security report estimated that 170,000 people successfully entered the U.S. illegally from the southern border in 2015. That number is significantly less than the 1.7 million people estimated to have entered in 2005.

5.6 million

There were approximately 5.6 million "unauthorized immigrants" from Mexico by 2016, according to data from the Pew Research Center. That number has decreased from 6.4 million in 2009.

4

Four companies were selected to build concrete prototypes of the border wall, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced in August 2017.

Those companies are: the Caddell Construction Company of Montgomery, Ala.; Fisher Sand and Gravel of Tempe, Ariz.; Texas Sterling Construction Company of Houston, Texas; and WG Yates and Sons Construction of Philadelphia, Miss.

The prototypes will be 30 feet tall and 30 feet wide and will cost up to $500,000 to make.
Fox News' Alex Pappas and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Trump's border wall: A look at the numbers

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One of President Trump's biggest campaign promises was his vow to build a wall along the country's southernmost border. And that promise is now at the center of Trump's fight with Democratic leaders as he's insisted he's willing to let the government shut down if Congress doesn't approve funding for the wall.