Redefining the Wall: What Donald Trump’s ‘Great Wall’ Looks like After Eight Months of Presidency
Donald Trump has promised supporters a “Great Wall” on the southern border since the day he announced his presidential campaign.
He promised, “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.”
Today, how does the Trump administration define the wall?
Yes, Trump will build “a wall,” administration officials said, and he is still committed to securing the southern border, but after eight months of his presidency, supporters have no idea what the actual wall will look like.
“President Trump campaigned on and will deliver his promise to the American people to build a wall and gain control of our southern border,” a senior administration official told Breitbart News.
But when asked to define the wall, the official was more diplomatic.
“The prototypes under consideration are intended to demonstrate state of the art options, which may ultimately include a combination of the best features,” the official stated. “Certain types of wall or features may be best suited for some border environments, while other wall types and features might fit other border areas.”
David Lapan, the spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security was more direct.
“‘The Wall’ doesn’t mean a single, monolithic structure, but refers, instead, to a combination of walls, fences, and barriers, complemented by the smart and effective use of technology,” Lapan told Breitbart News.
The DHS has worked carefully for months to redefine Trump’s vision of a “Great Wall” into something more complex and practical.
Trump’s choice for Secretary of Homeland Security General John Kelly took a traditional approach to the wall by requesting feedback from government experts.
After a series of conversations with border officials at DHS and CBP, Kelly explained to the president that a “great wall” was not needed, just more physical infrastructure.
During a Homeland Security committee hearing, Kelly described his conversation with border officials.
“They very definitely said: ‘Yes, sir, we need a physical barrier backed up by people like us — meaning CBP and local law enforcement — with technology where it’s appropriate,” he said in February.
DHS officials frequently refer to a “physical barrier” rather than a wall, as it is a loose term that includes wire and metal fencing, concrete barriers, bollard fences, and levee walls.
“We sort of use those two [terms] interchangeably,” a senior administration official explained to reporters in August when asked about the difference between a fence and a wall on the border. Another official explained that while some structures were called a ”fence” in the past, they are described as a “wall” by border security agents today.
The Prototypes
Shortly after taking office, Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security to “take steps to immediately plan, design, and construct a physical wall along the southern border.
Customs and Border Protection responded by bidding out wall prototypes. The process began in March, as officials said it would help the government select the best border security technology possible.
On Tuesday, the Customs and Border Patrol released a video of a backhoe digging near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in San Diego, California, with the announcement that construction of the prototypes had begun — eight months after Trump signed his executive order.
Six companies have been awarded contracts for four concrete border wall prototypes and four prototypes built of “other materials.” Each structure will be 18-30 feet high.
“Prototyping is an industry-tested approach to identify additional solutions when considering a new product or methodology,” the CBP said in a statement.
Although construction has begun on the wall prototypes, officials are closely guarding images of what they will look like, even though companies have submitted detailed plans for review.
Department of Homeland Security press staff cited “security reasons” when asked why no images of the proposed wall prototypes could be released to the public.
A New Wall Reality
Trump’s campaign rhetoric about his “great wall” made of “hardened concrete,” “rebar,” and “steel” has already changed after several briefings with DHS officials.
Last week, as proof that he was making progress on the wall, the president told supporters in Alabama that he was already fixing existing border infrastructure.
“You know, we have a wall up there now, and we’re renovating it already,” Trump said, explaining that his administration was making it “pristine” and “perfect.”
He confessed that after his conversations with border officials, a “see-through” wall was necessary for border security.
“Frankly, I didn’t know it until about a year ago,” he said, admitting that the “pre-cast concrete wall” he previously proposed would not be good enough to stop drugs.
Trump said that drug cartels were already using catapults to throw drugs over existing walls, where it could hit unsuspecting border patrol agents.
“I think also I have to be honest with you: a see-through wall would look better,” he added.
He explained that the United States did not need to build a wall on a river or over a mountain, as they were natural barriers to prevent border crossings.
Trump highlighted that construction of the wall prototypes started Tuesday and are “just about completed,” promising supporters that he will be personally involved in the selection process.
“I’m going to go out and look at them personally. I’m going to pick the right one,” he said. “We’re renovating the existing wall, and we are going to have as much wall as we need. … We’re going to build the wall. It’s coming along great.”
Texas Border Agents Nab Gang Members, Illegals Convicted of Manslaughter, Sexual Assault
On Thursday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported border agent have arrested five criminal illegal aliens trying to break back into the U.S. in Texas’ Rio Grande Sector.
After their arrests, the CBP discovered that the illegal aliens had already been convicted of crimes ranging from manslaughter to sexual assault – and three were members of dangerous gangs:
- A Mexican man who admitted to being member of the notoriously deadly Mara Salvatrucha gang, also known as MS-13.
- Two Salvadoran nationals (in separate arrests) who confirmed they were members of the 18th Street Gang, a violent Los Angeles street gang comprised primarily of illegal immigrants.
- A Brazilian woman previously arrested by the State Police in Burlington County, New Jersey for manslaughter and sentenced to four years in prison.
- Mexican national previously arrested by the New Haven, Connecticut Police Department for 4th degree sexual assault and sentenced to one year of prison confinement.
“All subjects are being processed accordingly,” the CBP reports.
While Brown has not yet signed the “Sanctuary State” bill, which would make California a sanctuary for criminal illegal aliens, it is unlikely that the latest alarming rise in violent crime would stop him.
Violent Crime Up Twice the National Average in Part of California
Violent crime is up across the country, but in some pockets of California, violent offenses — including murder, rape, robbery and assault — are up twice the national average, according to an FBI report released Monday.
While property crimes were down both nationally and in California, violent crimes spiked almost 4% in the Golden State, even though some in academia made a point to downplay the dramatic increase, according to the San Francisco Chronicle:
In California, 1,930 people were slain last year, an increase of 3.7 percent that came on the heels of a rise of 9.7 percent the previous year. But the 2016 rate — 4.9 victims for every 100,000 population — is relatively low compared with the rate 10 years earlier (6.9) and far lower than the rate in 1980 (14.4).“The overall picture is that homicide and violent crime rates went up dramatically in the 1970s and ’80s and ’90s, and then underwent a dramatic drop in the last 20 years, and leveled off,” said Robert Weisberg, a Stanford University criminal law professor and co-director of the school’s Criminal Justice Center.The FBI’s 2016 numbers, he said, “are not inconsistent with that.”Still, Bay Area law enforcement officials have expressed concern about the recent trend, opening up a debate over whether crime has gone up due to several factors, including the effort to reduce jail and prison populations and a struggle in some places to recruit and retain officers.
And Bay Area law enforcement officials are not the only ones wondering if recent prison and sentencing reforms have led to the dramatic increase.
Sacramento’s NBC affiliate (KCRA) reports that the
[v]iolent crime rate — which includes the number of homicides, rape, robbery and assault — was 716.3 per 100,000 people in 2016. Nationally, the violent crime rate was 386.3.
With violent crime in Sacramento rising at twice the national rate, there are additional questions about the impact of Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature prison reform, known as “AB109 Realignment.” That measure transferred many dangerous and violent felons from state to county supervision, and effectively commuted many sentences. It also put violent felons back on the streets and ended state parole supervision for those offenders altogether.
In February, California’s law enforcement community was rocked when a Whittier police officer, Keith Boyer, 53, was murdered by an unsupervised AB109 offender, who would have been behind bars had he been subject to state parole supervision.
While Brown has not yet signed the “Sanctuary State” bill, which would make California a sanctuary for criminal illegal aliens, it is unlikely that the latest alarming rise in violent crime would stop him.
Tim Donnelly is a former California State Assemblyman and Author, currently on a book tour for his new book: Patriot Not Politician: Win or Go Homeless. He also ran for governor in 2014.
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