THE ATLANTIC: Priscilla Alvarez Gives The Real Scoop On Trump’s Failed Border Wall & Other Plans For Border Enforcement!

https://apple.news/ANv1VbtW7RSeRiPNUodE0rA

 

“Mick Mulvaney, the president’s budget director, said on Tuesday that the administration will replace segments of chain-link fencing with a 20-foot-tall steel fence along the southern border, despite Congress refusal to fund the president’s border wall in its spending bill.
Trump, for his part, has claimed that the administration is “beginning to build the wall,” which was a central plank of his presidential campaign, saying that “we’re putting up a lot of new wall in certain areas.” Mulvaney elaborated Tuesday that there is funding to “replace cyclone fencing with 20-foot high steel wall.” He declined repeated questions from White House reporters about where along the border the fencing would go, or how many miles it would cover.
He was apparently referring to a provision in the spending bill unveiled by Congress earlier this week, which falls well short of the president’s repeated pledges. The bill allocates a little more than $341 million “to replace approximately 40 miles of existing primary pedestrian and vehicle border fencing along the southwest border using previously deployed and operationally effective designs, such as currently deployed steel bollard designs, that prioritize agent safety; and to add gates to existing barriers.” According to a 2009 report by the Government Accountability Office, existing vehicle and pedestrian fencing along the border averaged somewhere between $1 and $3.9 million to erect. The budget allocation implies that replacing that fencing with a steel-bollard design would cost $8.5 million per mile.
In 2006, President George W. Bush authorized the construction of a 700-mile wall of double layer fencing under the Secure Fence Act. Still, to seal off the border entirely, the wall would have to extend roughly 2,000 miles. And that’s a costly endeavor. According to estimates by the Department of Homeland Security, the wall’s price tag could be as much as $21.6 billion.

So far, the administration has only secured funds to improve existing fencing. When pressed on whether that was the most effective way to spend funds, Mulvaney said, “There are certain places where technology will also help.” He also noted that constructing a wall along the entire southern border “is a several year process.”
Building a wall along the southern border is a difficult task, and that may be especially true for the administration as it tries to close off the border in new areas. Mulvaney suggested that the administration will also prepare  for land acquisition. During the Bush years, the administration focused on areas where most of the land belonged to the federal government, but along the Texas-Mexico border, much of  the land is private property, raising the issue of eminent domain. Republicans have expressed concerns over the use of eminent domain, which some argue is an example of big government overreach, setting up a whole separate challenge for the White House.”

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Read Priscilla’s complete article at the link!  Trump just can’t admit that his really bad idea is — a really bad idea! And it’s not just Dems and advocates who think so!!

PWS

05-02-17

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Gus Villageliu
Gus Villageliu
7 years ago

Thanks for the detailed info. No centrist objects to improving border security keeping in mind our many other legal priorities. As the link explains, W himself, our last GOP pro-immigrant President, built twice as many miles simply through needed yearly maintenance.

How much enforcement the USA wants always depends on how much we eventually appropriate. Money talks, BS walks. We have a strong tradition of reasonable local patriots and neighbors regularly compromising over spending scarce funds. They decide what we actually need in our small d democracy.

It’s good to see the USA “laboratories of democracy” doing their magic again. And speaking of BS walking, the otherwise odious Michael Moore predicts Trump will we removed from office sometime in 2019, after disastrous GOP midterms results with Trump’s popularity in the 20% range.
3 big Ifs with that 2019 scenario: Russian probes accelerate process; GDP accelerates rapidly past magic 3%; or foreign wars change everything, i.e. 9/11.

But I got something real happy to share: Margot Eugenia Gilchrist Villageliu, our first grand daughter. Born April 25, 2017.
Proud parents Ryan Gilchrist and Julia the girl scout who sold you cookies if you worked at EOIR headquarters circa 1995-98. Clear Nepotism and impeachable under the Emoluments Clause like Trump, I’m sure. But so what?
Some of you who know already how becoming a grand parent boosts the joy of life, feel free to share. What my good old friends are doing with their real lives is still important to me. Thanks.
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Gus Villageliu
Gus Villageliu
7 years ago
Reply to  Gus Villageliu

And of course you can email me directly at gusvillageliu@gmail.com or 703-819-9785 (cell)
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Gus Villageliu
Gus Villageliu
7 years ago

Thanks. BTW, I liked the fence that kept the lake on the other side of my walking path at Krome S.P.C. That’s where the alligators were!
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