After spending a week threatening to declare lack of a border wall a national emergency, President Trump backed off, saying he could do that if he wanted to, but he won’t do that just yet. There are two reasons for him to say that:
More:
“No ‘Emergency’ Will Allow Trump to Build His Wall,” Noah Feldman, Bloomberg
“Toddler-in-Chief Doesn’t Wanna ‘Do’ a National Emergency,” Claire Lampen, The Cut
“Bipartisan blowback hits idea of tapping Army Corps for wall money,” Annie Snider, Politico
“Texas Border Landowners Vow To Reject Buyouts For Trump’s Wall,” Nomaan Merchant, AP, via Talking Points Memo
“6 real emergencies that should be more important to Donald Trump than the wall,” Paul Brandus, USA Today
Related:
“That GoFundMe to build a border wall is issuing $20 million in refunds,” Taylor Hatmaker, Techcrunch
“A Border Is Not a Wall. It’s much more interesting.” Alexis C. Madrigal, The Atlantic
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President-for-now Donald Trump says the U.S. needs a steel barrier to protect it from a national crisis:
Mr. Trump wants $5.7 billion in tax dollars to build a 234-mile steel wall of unknown design, a sort of pig-iron-in-a-poke situation. A project like that could require as much 3 million tons of steel, according to industry sources. That must please all the former steel company execs and lobbyists in the Trump administration.
“I intend the call the heads of United States Steel and a couple of other of our great steel companies” said the president. “I will have them come up with a template or design of a beautiful steel product, which we now may use and use that as our barrier.”
Actually, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has some very effective steel barriers, and they’re quite compact. Mr. Trump should try one out, for size. Oh wait, that might be awkward. Federal prison guards aren’t being paid due to the president’s shutdown.
More:
“Trump Offers a ‘Steel Barrier,’ but Democrats Are Unmoved,” Michael Tackett and Catie Edmondson, New York Times
“Trump Sees Border Wall As Another Boost For U.S. Steel Industry,” Jim Zarroli, NPR News
“Most illegal immigration doesn’t come through the Mexican border where Trump wants to build his wall,”Carmin Chappell, CNBC
Related:
“Trump Was Never a Great Dealmaker. The Shutdown Proves It.” Timothy L. O’Brien, Bloomberg
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The former mayor of Columbus, New Mexico has pleaded guilty to smuggling 200 guns across the U.S. border into Mexico to buyers in the La Línea drug cartel. At least 12 of the weapons were used in murders. The 11 people charged with gun trafficking also include the Columbus police chief and a town trustee. The weapons, purchased from Arizona and New Mexico gun shops by “straw buyers,” were smuggled into Mexico using unmarked Columbus police vehicles.
The entire Columbus police force has been fired. Unfortunately, the firearms have been too, and people died.
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In a stunning security coup, agents of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service seized 385 pounds of bologna sausage at the New Mexico border last week. Officials bagged the bologna bandit as he sought to smuggle illicit lunchmeat into sleepy Santa Teresa, NM (population 2607). The contraband cold cuts, with a street value of $2,700, were seized and destroyed before they reached the lunchboxes of innocent American schoolchildren.
Yet, for each bologna bagged at the border, surely six salamis slither across. Mr. President: where is our Border Wall?
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Chivalry may be dead, but the Middle Ages are alive on the Mexican Border. Federales found a catapult used by drug smugglers to propel pot over the border fence and into the Arizona desert. Cops captured the catapult and cannabis but the flingers fled. Anybody missing from the Centro de Estudios Medievales at the Universidad de Sonora?
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