Mexico Wall
Early in the campaign, Trump committed to building a wall between the United States and its southern ally. He has backed up that rhetoric with an Executive Order to do just that. There is continued debate about not only the need, purpose, and construction of such a wall, but also who will pay for it.
See also Mexico.
Timeline
| 2017.01.25 | This is a transcript of ABC News anchor David Muir’s interview with President Trump. abcnews.go.com (See also First 100 Days, NAFTA, Trade, Jeff Sessions, John Kelly, DACA, Voter Fraud, James Mattis, Mike Pompeo, Iraq, Infrastructure, Affordable Care Act, Muslim Immigration Ban) This is a transcript of ABC News anchor David Muir’s interview with President Trump on Jan. 25, 2017. |
| 2017.01.26 | A rift opens between US and Mexico as Trump presses forward with his wall plan and President Enrique Peña Nieto on Thursday cancels a trip to Washington after emphasizing that Mexico would not finance the wall. washingtonpost.com (See also First 100 Days, Mexico) The decision comes a day after Trump signed an executive order to start building a wall along the Mexican border. |
| 2017.01.26 | Ambiguous statements, first floating a 20% tax on Mexican imports then pulling back, reveal Trump’s uncertainty on funding border wall. washingtonpost.com (See also First 100 Days, NAFTA) More attention is being paid to the idea of a border adjustment tax, which because of U.S. imports could raise a lot of money. |
| 2017.01.26 | Border Patrol chief removed from post after clashing with powerful union who endorsed Trump. washingtonpost.com (See also First 100 Days) Mark Morgan’s departure comes one day after President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. |
| 2017.01.26 | Congressional Republicans wonder who will pay for the wall, while Trump and his aides insist Mexico will through reforms to the U.S. tax code. washingtonpost.com (See also First 100 Days) Republicans were confused about whether such a change would be considered a tariff or a tax; many do not support a tariff. Lawmakers are also concerned that without such changes, there is no way to offset or make up elsewhere the costs of the enormous structure. |
| 2017.01.26 | Mexico’s President Enrique Peã Nieto cancels meeting with Trump over wall executive order. nytimes.com (See also First 100 Days, Mexico) |
| 2017.01.27 | Berlin mayor warns Trump: Mexico wall will destroy lives bbc.com (See also First 100 Days) |
| 2017.01.28 | After Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted his support for Trump's border wall. Mexico issued a statement expressing, "its profound astonishment, rejection and disappointment over Prime Minister Netanyahu's message on Twitter about the construction of a border wall." reuters.com (See also Israel) Mexico's government rebuked Israel on Saturday for a tweet by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that appeared to applaud U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to build a border wall with Mexico to keep o… |
| 2017.02.03 | Trump's plan to build a wall on the border with Mexico is facing a major problem: resistance from his own party. cnn.com (See also First 100 Days, Mexico) |
| 2017.02.07 | Homeland Security secretary says a border wall won't be built all at once. latimes.com (See also First 100 Days, Department of Homeland Security) |
| 2017.02.09 | Jared Kushner proves to be a shadow diplomat on U.S.-Mexico talks regarding NAFTA and border wall negotiations. washingtonpost.com (See also First 100 Days, Jared Kushner, Mexico, NAFTA) |
| 2017.02.10 | Trump’s “wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border would be a series of fences and walls that would cost as much as $21.6 billion, and take more than three years to construct according to Homeland Security internal report. in.reuters.com (See also First 100 Days, Department of Homeland Security) |
| 2017.02.12 | Mexicans march to protest Trump — but also their own leaders and politicians washingtonpost.com (See also First 100 Days, Mexico) |
| 2017.02.22 | Paul Ryan leads a delegation of House Republicans on a tour of the U.S.-Mexico border to see firsthand the security challenges of keeping out undocumented immigrants that Trump wants to block with a costly wall. washingtonpost.com (See also First 100 Days) |
| 2017.02.22 | Rex W. Tillerson arrives in Mexico with twin threats hanging over the frayed relationship between the two nations: Trump’s new orders to round up and deport immigrants who are in the United States illegally, and a separate effort to examine American aid to Mexico for possible use in paying for a border wall. nytimes.com (See also Rex Tillerson, Department of State, First 100 Days, Mexico, Immigration) |
| 2017.02.24 | Trump administration solicits ideas from contractors on how to build its promised wall between the U.S. and Mexico, a first tangible step toward delivering on the president’s signature campaign promise to curb unauthorized immigration. bloomberg.com (See also First 100 Days, Immigration) |
| 2017.03.03 | Mexican congressman sends President Trump a message after apparently climbing a 30-foot fence at the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday. “I was able to scale it, climb it, and sit myself right here. It would be simple for me to jump into the United States, which shows that it is unnecessary and totally absurd to build a wall." news.vice.com (See also First 100 Days) |
| 2017.03.07 | Trump administration weighs cuts to the Coast Guard, the TSA, and other agencies to pay for a Mexico border wall. washingtonpost.com The Federal Emergency Management Agency also could see significant cuts under an OMB proposal. |
| 2017.03.09 | Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell says Mexico will not pay for Trump's border wall. yahoo.com |
| 2017.03.15 | Trump’s promise to build a fortified barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border is about to hit a wall of its own: top Republicans in Congress with different ideas on how to curb illegal immigration. bloomberg.com (See also First 100 Days) |
| 2017.06.22 | Trump claimed Mexico is the second deadliest country in the world. It's not. buzzfeed.com (See also Mexico, Unpresidential Behavior, False Statements) |
| 2017.07.27 | The House has passed a $788 billion spending bill that combines a $1.6 billion down payment for Trump’s controversial border wall with Mexico with a whopping budget increase for the Pentagon, but significant hurdles remain in front of the measure, which will meet with more powerful Democratic opposition in the Senate. apnews.com (See also Department of Defense) |
| 2017.08.03 | The Washington Post on Thursday published transcripts of Trump’s January phone calls with the leaders of Mexico and Australia — and they include plenty of bizarre, surreal, and stunning moments. buzzfeed.com (See also Foreign Policy, Mexico, Unpresidential Behavior, False Statements) |
| 2017.08.03 | Trump made building a wall along the southern U.S. border and forcing Mexico to pay for it core pledges of his campaign, but as transcripts of his first White House call with Mexico’s president reveal, Trump described his vow to charge Mexico as a growing political problem, pressuring the Mexican leader to stop saying publicly that his government would never pay. washingtonpost.com (See also Foreign Policy, Mexico) |
Assessments
Peter Andreas — The Washington Post
On Jan. 26, 2017, Andreas notes that Trump probably will build his wall because most of it is already built.
Trump has dismissed the current state of border security as “a joke,” but he’ll soon find that the bipartisan border policing boom started in the 1990s will be crucial to keeping his wall pledge. Trump’s plan calls for a wall that covers 1,000 miles of the nearly 2,000-mile-long border — with natural obstacles covering the remainder. Nearly 700 miles of various types of border fencing are already in place, and portions of it very much look like a formidable metal wall. It is hard to imagine Trump tearing all that fencing up and starting from scratch.
What’s much more realistic is that Trump will simply add more miles of fencing; reinforce existing fencing in key, visible places; and deploy even more border guards, stadium lighting, and the latest high-tech detection and surveillance equipment.
Seth Stodder — Politico
In his Jan. 25, 2017, article, Stodder posits that Trump's wall attacks the wrong immigration crisis.
...according to the Pew Research Center, more Mexicans now leave the U.S. than head north, and border apprehensions are down a whopping 75 percent since 2000. Simply put, fewer people are coming, and our border authorities catch and remove most who try.
This is not to say there isn’t a crisis, however. There is one, but it’s different from the one Trump thinks exists. It doesn’t involve Mexican migrants, and a wall won’t solve it. The actual crisis involves thousands of migrants from Central America’s “Northern Triangle” — El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — who are fleeing brutal gang violence, extreme poverty or malnutrition. Roughly half of these migrants are women and young children escaping desperate circumstances, facing the real possibility of death or rape if they stay. Others are fleeing extreme poverty in remote regions where education ends at the sixth grade and families are limited to one meal a day.
America obviously cannot solve all the economic problems of Central America, but under U.S. and international law, all migrants are afforded the opportunity to apply for asylum protection if they make it to U.S. soil.
Further research
- Peter Andreas, Border Games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide