Yep. Have felt since the beginning the end result of all this Trump crap will be much closer to what Hillary proposed than to Trump's delusional and dishonest fantasy.
Repeat
JimLur, bottom line Hillary's border security plan incorporating technology in remote areas was better than the physical 'wall all the way' promise of Trump's.
Basically, Donald Trump's Border Wall Already Exists
To build border wall as a national emergency, Trump would need to tap existing military budget
Hoping your .. - "5 reasons why Trump's wall will only ever be a fantasy [...] Even with a "military version" of eminent domain — and Trump's plan to start construction by declaring a national emergency seems highly unlikely to pass legal muster — seizing hundreds of miles of border land from private and tribal owners would be a long, complex, expensive, and incredibly bitter process. (The Texas Tribune's excellent reporting on this subject is a must-read for those imagining there is any truth in Trump's promises of a quick and easy build.) And not to belabor the obvious, but it would also entail the federal government forcibly taking the private property of hundreds of Americans citizens for a feckless project they do not support." .. is the way it works out.
President Trump speaks during a tour to review border wall prototypes in San Diego on March 13, 2018. The president says he may declare a national emergency to build the wall using funds from the Defense Department’s budget. (Evan Vucci/AP/file)
By Paul Sonne January 7
If President Trump declares a national emergency to force the military to build a wall on the border with Mexico, the Pentagon may have to figure out which military construction projects around the world to cancel, pare back or put on hold to free up money for the initiative.
The possibility that Trump will draw on military funds to build the wall using emergency powers comes amid an impasse with congressional Democrats that has led to a partial government shutdown now in its third week. Trump has refused to sign any funding bill to reopen the federal agencies that doesn’t include $5.7?billion to begin construction of the wall.
One possible workaround is for Trump to declare a national emergency and order the U.S. military to construct the wall. The president threatened to do so on Friday, saying he could declare a national emergency if he wants to and build the wall “very quickly.”
But the law that authorizes the defense secretary to order military building projects in the event of a national emergency requires the Pentagon to draw upon funds that Congress has already appropriated for military construction. The result is that the administration could have to claw back money from projects Congress has debated and funded.
The president’s suggestion that he can build the wall by declaring a national emergency would likely hinge on a little-known section .. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/2808 .. of the U.S. Code governing the military. Section 2808 gives the defense secretary the authority to undertake military construction projects “not otherwise authorized by law” to support any troops deployed in a national emergency requiring the use of the armed forces.
The law limits the spending in such cases. The Pentagon can draw upon only the money that Congress has appropriated for military construction projects but which has yet to be committed by contract to projects. These are known as unobligated funds. Sometimes, they are not all spent.
According to a congressional aide, there is about $10?billion left in unobligated funds for military construction in the current fiscal year’s defense budget, in addition to some $13?billion that has rolled over from previous years. The money, however, has been appropriated for specific projects. This aide, and another one, spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the issue.
The Pentagon’s leadership would be forced to decide which of the projects in various stages of completion should see their funds diverted or cut, according to the congressional aide and a defense official. The sorts of projects underway include child-care centers on bases and weapons-range complexes. Any decision to delay or scrap military construction projects on the home front could rankle local congressional delegations and cause political pain for lawmakers.
The use of the national emergency powers for military construction theoretically could open up the administration to legal action. The language in the statute allows the defense secretary to order military construction projects deemed necessary to support armed forces deployed in a national emergency. Whether the wall would count as a construction project necessary to support armed forces is unclear.
Steve Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas Law School, said that the National Emergencies Act allows the president to use Pentagon money on construction projects, but he said there are caveats and limits.
“It’s not an unlimited pool of money, and the construction has to be for a military purpose,” he said.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Monday that the president has the legal authority but there’s no clear legal history on the matter.
“Can he do it?” Smith told CNN. “Yeah, he can. It would be wrong. It would be horrible policy.”
Trump later noted that Smith agreed the president had the authority. “No doubt, but let’s get our deal done in Congress!” Trump tweeted.
The Pentagon has used the emergency construction authority 18 times since September 2001, according to another congressional aide. In that time, the Defense Department has used the authority only once in the United States — in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks to do construction at military installations storing sensitive materials or demilitarized chemical weapons.
All the other times the Pentagon has used the authority since 2001 have been overseas, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Djibouti and other locations in the Middle East. In those instances, the military has built barracks, power lines, roads and airfields to support troops at war or operating abroad. The same statute allows the Pentagon to undertake military construction to support troops in the event of a declaration of war.
Trump theoretically could also draw on the funds the military uses for stopping drugs from entering the United States if he presents the wall as a counternarcotics measure.
A separate U.S. statute .. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/284 .. authorizes the administration to order military construction projects for the purposes of counternarcotics activities. But according to one of the congressional aides, that account contains only about $760?million in the current fiscal year budget, far below the more than $5?billion Trump wants this year for the construction of the border wall.
According to a 2007 report from the Congressional Research Service, the president has broad ability to declare national emergencies, allowing him to establish martial law, seize property, regulate commerce and employ military forces overseas in a war- or peacetime situation.
Both Congress and the courts retain the ability to constrain that presidential power. During the 20th century, national emergencies have been declared related to issues such as the Korean War and a postal strike during the Nixon administration. The 1976 National Emergencies Act regulated how such emergencies can be declared and how long they last.
Since that law was enacted, national emergencies have been declared for a variety of reasons, including to prohibit trade with certain countries or block assets of suspected drug traffickers. The George W. Bush administration declared a national emergency three days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
“The president of the United States has an enormous amount of power,” Smith said, noting that the courts don’t have a long history of standing up to executive power. “It’s one of the reasons why we need to be really careful about who we elect president.”
Missy Ryan and Dan Lamothe contributed to this report.
"5 reasons why Trump's wall will only ever be a fantasy"
A migrant atop a border fence near Tijuana, Mexico, last month. His attempt to cross over with his family failed. Mauricio Lima for The New York Times
By Megan Specia and Eric Nagourney
Jan. 9, 2019
Countries rise and fall over borders — and how they are guarded. Wars are fought, lives upended. Then again, sometimes it’s more a matter of trash not being collected in national parks, and politicians issuing dueling news releases.
The federal government shutdown sparked by President Trump’s demand for funding a wall on the Mexican border is nearing the three-week mark, and offers a reminder that borders are not just lines of demarcation: Often, they are potent symbols of the politics playing out around them.
A look at some of the most-guarded borders in the world, and some that are notably less so.
President Moon Jae-in of South Korea, right, and the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un meeting in 2018. Pool photo by Korea Summit Press
North Korea and South Korea
Many know it simply by its latitude: the 38th Parallel.
The border between North Korea and South Korea has been one of the most contentious in the world for decades.
The Korean War halted in 1953 with an armistice — but a formal peace treaty was never signed. As part of the armistice, the American-led United Nations Command and the Communist generals of North Korea and China agreed to create a two-and-a-half-mile-wide buffer zone that divides the Korean Peninsula to keep the warring armies apart.
Known as the DMZ, the buffer zone was supposed to be “demilitarized,” but soon became a heavily fortified frontier riddled with land mines and surrounded by fences and guard posts.
Then last year, South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, took a symbolic step. Hand in hand, they crossed over the demarcation line, signifying what many hoped was the start of a new era.
The separation barrier surrounding the Shuafat camp in East Jerusalem. Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times
Israel and the West Bank
Israel’s boundary with the occupied West Bank was once a largely invisible one.
But Israel began building a physical barrier in 2002, at the height of a Palestinian suicide bombing campaign. Mostly departing from the pre-1967 armistice line, the barrier became increasingly political as its architects looped it around settlements and areas that Israel wished to keep under any future peace deal. (Palestinians want the territory, along with Gaza, for a future independent state.)
Thousands of Palestinian workers apply for permits and enter Israel every day. Thousands more sneak across without authorization, but they are generally accepted as part of the local economy.
Syrian migrants crossing into Hungary at the border with Serbia in 2015. Bernadett Szabo/Reuters
Hungary and Serbia
In 2015, Europe grappled with enormous migration flows from the Middle East and Northern Africa, on a scale unprecedented in modern history.
Many of the people arriving at its doorstep were seeking asylum, and they received an uneven welcome on the Continent. Some nations offered a haven. Others sealed their borders.
In some places, like Hungary, the call for a border wall became a rally cry of a rising populist movement.
Many migrants never had any intention of settling in Hungary; it was simply a way station. Their real goal was reaching more prosperous European nations, and so some simply found different routes.
A man looking out over the landscape from a viewing point on Cuilcagh mountain. The border runs along the top of the mountain. Andrew Testa for The New York Times
Britain and Ireland
The border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland was heavily militarized for decades as a partisan conflict over British control over the North.
But in the years since the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement was signed, the border virtually disappeared .. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/world/europe/northern-ireland-brexit-border.html?module=inline . For decades, both Britain and Ireland have been members of the European Union and its common marketplace, allowing for the free movement of people and goods between the two nations.
In many places, towns straddle the border and country roads weave back and forth from the Republic to the North, with the only indication of an international border crossing being speed-limit signs changing from kilometers to miles.
But with Britain’s decision to withdraw from the European Union, the border that stretches across the island of Ireland is set to become the only land border between Europe and Britain.
In a still from video, migrants climbing the border from Morocco to Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta, last year.CreditReuters
Morocco and Spain
A small stretch of Europe’s southern border actually touches Morocco, making the tiny territory accessible by land rather than by sea. Increasingly, it has become a place where migrants attempt to enter Europe, as other routes have become more perilous.
The Spanish enclave is known as Ceuta, and visitors there can’t fail to note a 20-foot-high barbed wire fence that stretches for four miles. The area is also patrolled by some 1,100 Spanish federal police officers and the Guardia Civil, a paramilitary police force.
A red carpet was laid out to welcome Eritreans before the border reopening ceremony last year. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Eritrea and Ethiopia
A brutal war over their border left Ethiopia and Eritrea in a two-decade-long standoff, often described as a “state of war.” The two nations cut economic, trade and diplomatic ties, and sealed the border, heavily militarizing it.
You might not know it from the rhetoric focused on America’s southern border, but border protection agents at the north are plenty busy. Much of the 5,525-mile border is open, and in some places towns — or even individual buildings .. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/12/us/canada-usa-border.html?module=inline — straddle both sides.
On the border between Stanstead, Quebec, and Derby Line, Vt., there is a paucity of tire spikes and imposing fences.
Megan Specia is a story editor on the International Desk, specializing in digital storytelling and breaking news. @meganspecia .. https://twitter.com/meganspecia
Trump's suicide wouldn't even bother me a little. He is willing to close the government to fulfill half of his campaign lie, mexican funding of a wall, so it is his fucking problem, and his downfall. now the republicans have to figure out how to stop his tantrum and make government open again. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=145993599
People are sawing through and climbing over Trump’s border wall. Now contractors are being asked for ideas to make it less vulnerable.
"5 reasons why Trump's wall will only ever be a fantasy"
Border barrier construction underway in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Lukeville, Ariz., in January. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)
By Nick Miroff June 5, 2020 at 6:23 a.m. GMT+10
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has asked contractors for help making President Trump’s border wall more difficult to climb over and cut through, an acknowledgment that the design currently being installed along hundreds of miles of the U.S.-Mexico boundary remains vulnerable.
“We have an adaptive adversary; regardless of materials, nothing is impenetrable if given unlimited time and tools,” the agency said. “Walls provide the U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) the ability to slow and stop potential crossings. That means building wall will deter some people from attempting to cross, while slowing the efforts of those who still try.”
The public notice is the first indication that CBP officials do not think the steel bollard design they selected from prototypes in 2017 is sufficiently formidable to achieve that goal. The primary design, consisting of 30-foot-tall steel bollards topped with flat metal anti-climb panels, is being installed by private contractors along stretches of the border. AD
“This is the most sophisticated border wall system we have ever built, but we will never disregard innovative and creative ideas that could continue to enhance border barriers,” CBP said.
Trump is expected to attend a ceremony in Yuma, Ariz., next week to mark the completion of the barrier’s 200th mile, according to officials who were not authorized to describe the plans.
U.S. Border Patrol agents look at the border fence construction in Lukeville, Ariz., on Jan. 7, 2020. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)
CBP has not said publicly how often smuggling crews have breached or attempted to breach the structure. Records obtained by The Post via the Freedom of Information Act indicate there were 18 breaches in the San Diego area during a one-month period last fall. The San Diego area has some of the most formidable barriers along the entire border, and construction of new double-layer fencing there is largely complete.
Smuggling crews have nonetheless managed to saw through the steel bollards using commercially available demolition tools such as reciprocating saws with inexpensive metal-cutting blades. Others have fashioned long, improvised ladders out of cheap rebar. More-athletic fence jumpers have been seen using rope ladders to climb up the barrier, sliding down the other side by gripping a bollard like a firehouse pole.
The CBP’s request for information says the agency is looking for new ways to stop the breaches.
“Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recognizes that industry, other agencies, and other private entities may have interesting, innovative, and useful ideas that could be implemented to enhance and or improve mission essential operational deterrent capabilities related to the anti-climb/anti-cut features of the border wall and persistent impedance,” it reads.
Such proposals could include sensors and cameras that would provide early warning of climbing and breaching attempts, as well as “advanced paint technology that would enhance the ability of thermal sensors to recognize wall jumpers and improve detection.”
Trump maintains a keen interest in the aesthetics and design elements of the barrier, and his shifting preferences have repeatedly left border officials and military engineers struggling to adjust his tastes to the operational and geographic realities of the U.S.-Mexico border.
President Trump talks with reporters as he tours a section of the southern border in Otay Mesa, Calif., on Sept. 18, 2019. (Evan Vucci/AP)
The language in the CBP request for information about “private party construction” appears specifically geared to the efforts of the group We Build the Wall, which is led by former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon and other prominent conservative activists, including U.S. Senate candidate Kris Kobach of Kansas.
The group says it has raised or received $25 million in donations to build new barriers on private land. The CBP request appears to be the first indication that the government is considering mechanisms to obtain and incorporate those new sections of privately built barrier into Trump’s broader effort.
“CBP recognizes that private entities and nongovernmental organizations also have an interest in supporting the mission of border protection, by deploying private wall solutions,” the CBP notice states. “Mainly, those parties that can arrange private financing, and private acquisition of land, may have an interest in devising a wall structure that is consistent with government specifications.”
The CBP request also identifies 30 stretches of border totaling roughly 250 miles where private barriers could be built for sale to the government.
Fisher last month secured a $1.3 billion contract .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/trump-border-wall-fisher-contract/2020/05/19/d22943f2-99de-11ea-b60c-3be060a4f8e1_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_36 .. to install 42 miles of black-painted barriers in Arizona. The company’s first and only other award, for $400 million, is under audit by the Defense Department inspector general in a review initiated after Democrats alleged improper White House interference in the procurement process. Headshot of Nick Miroff Nick Miroff Nick Miroff covers immigration enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security for The Washington Post. He was a Post foreign correspondent in Latin America from 2010 to 2017, and has been a staff writer since 2006. Follow
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