News > Immigration In The United States
Building a wall (or talking about building a wall)
Posted on Mar 20 2017
The feds posted contract notices on Friday, March 17, for a wall on the Mexican border. Initial proposals are due by March 29. The contract notice says the wall has to be “aesthetically pleasing” on the north side, and specifies heights of 18 to 30 feet, along with the capacity to withstand “sledgehammer, car jack, pick axe, chisel, battery operated impact tools, battery operated cutting tools, Oxy/acetylene torch or other similar hand-held tools.”
The president also asked Congress to allocate somewhere between $2.6 and $4 billion — but that’s just a start. The president says the wall will cost $12 billion, Congress thinks it will be closer to $15 billion, and an internal Department of Homeland Security report says $21 billion. While the president originally said Mexico would pay for the wall, Mexico says it absolutely will not pay. That leaves U.S. taxpayers footing the bill, if Congress appropriates the money.
Money is not the only problem:
Cronkite News: The Tohono O’odham reservation has land and members on both sides of the border, and is among the Native American tribal nations opposing the wall. “Tribal nations are sovereign governments and the federal government ‘must practice consultation to keep a good relationship with the Native leaders,’ said Rachel Rose Starks, senior researcher at Udall Center for Public Policy at the University of Arizona.”
Texas Observer: Many U.S. landowners don’t want the wall on their property – and don’t like the low prices the government is offering, or the threat of eminent domain to force them to sell.
Valley Central: And then there’s the potential danger to already-endangered species, like ocelots, and to national and state parks and wildlife refuges, and the possibility of a wall causing flooding.
Los Angeles Times: Mexico-based Cemex, one of the world’s largest suppliers of building materials, says it will not participate in construction of the border wall.
For more information:
- Bidding has begun for Trump’s border wall (CBS, 3/20/17)
- Texans receive frist notices of condemnation for Trump’s border wall (Texas Observer, 3/14/17)
- Customs and Border Protection Outlines Border Wall Requirements (NPR, 3/18/17)
- Under pressure, Mexican-owned Cemex says it won’t help build Trump’s border wall (Los Angeles Times, 3/16/17)
- Trump wants to build 30 foot high wall at Mexican border (Washington Post, 3/18/17)
- Border wall worries owners of land (Brownsville Herald, 3/19/17)
- Trump’s proposed border wall may affect wildlife, local environmental expert says (Valley Central, 3/20/17)
- A border runs through it: Tribes wary of wall on reservation land (Cronkite News, 3/13/17)
- Canadians’ satirical border ‘solution’ designed to drive Trump up wall (Seattle Times, 3/18/17)