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U.S. NEWSWednesday 9 March 2016
Can they do that? Trump’s wall faces great hurdles Donald Trump calls
comments on Nazi
MATTHEW LEE the flow of the rivers, which ritory straddles the border zona border, according gesture ‘ridiculous’
ALICIA CALDWELL flow across Texas and 24 in southern Arizona. to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Associated Press miles in Arizona and define In areas where the bor- Service. WASHINGTON (AP) — Re-
WASHINGTON (AP) — Don- the U.S.-Mexican border, der is defined on dry land Then there’s the cost. publican front-runner Don-
ald Trump promises to build according to The Interna- across New Mexico, most Numerous fact-checking ald Trump on Tuesday
a great wall along the tional Boundary and Water of Arizona and California, organizations have taken defended a gesture he
2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican Commission, a joint U.S.- structures have to be built issue with Trump’s estimate made with his right hand
border and make Mexico Mexican agency that ad- so that the wall doesn’t ob- that the wall would be built at a recent rally, saying he
pay for it, but it will be a dif- ministers the treaty. struct natural run off routes for $10 billion to $12 billion. was pretending to take the
ficult pledge to fulfill. Trump has said his wall will or otherwise induce flood- And, they have rejected oath of office. He called
Can he do it? not need to run the full ing. Building in those areas his contention that the wall any suggestion that he was
Sure, a wall can be built, trying to mimic a Nazi sa-
but it’s not nearly as simple A U.S. Border Patrol agent drives near the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Santa Teresa, N.M. Can lute “ridiculous.”
as Trump says it will be. Donald Trump really make good on his promise to build a wall along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican The accusations have oc-
Constructing the wall, now border to prevent illegal migration? What’s more, can he make Mexico pay for it? Sure, he can curred largely in anony-
a signature applause line build it, but it’s not nearly as simple as he says. mous social media posts.
at Trump campaign rallies, Speaking to NBC, Trump
is a complicated endeav- (AP Photo/Russell Contreras) said his supporters had
or, fraught with difficulties. merely wanted him to pre-
Numerous bureaucratic, 2,100-mile length of the can be complicated and could be funded by reduc- tend that he was taking
diplomatic, environmen- border, but even excluding costly. In sensitive sand ing theU.S. trade deficit the oath of office. Trump,
tal, monetary and logistical those portions blocked by dunes in Southern Califor- with Mexico. Figures re- in response, called on sup-
hurdles must be overcome. geographic features, there nia, for instance, a “float- leased by the Army Corps porters to take an oath
And forcing the Mexican are serious issues. ing fence” had to be built of Engineers and the Con- that they would vote for
government to foot the In some places, treaty ob- to allow the natural move- gressional Research Ser- him, prompting the crowd
bill won’t be easy, espe- ligations and river flood ments of the dunes. vice indicate that the total to raise their hands.
cially since its president zones would require the Then, there are the conser- cost of the current 650-mile “I didn’t know it was a prob-
has flat-out refused. During wall be built well into the vation issues. Environmen- fence has been $7 billion. lem,” Trump said. “Some-
President George W. Bush’s United States, which would tal groups have sued over And that doesn’t include times we’ll do it for fun ...
second term, Congress au- be awkward if the Mexi- parts of the existing fence. maintenance and upkeep. Sometimes they’ll scream
thorized $1.2 billion to build can government is pay- And, federal regulations Trump has insisted that at me, ‘Do the swear-in, do
several hundred miles of ing for it and overseeing could prevent or at least Mexico will pay for the the swear-in’.”
double-layer fencing but the project. In addition to delay or increase costs of wall, perhaps through fees At the rally in Florida last
the government faced myr- creating a no man’s land construction. on money that immigrants week, Trump raised his
iad obstacles. Private land- between the wall and the A total of 18 federally pro- send home to their families, hand, with his elbow bent,
owners objecting to buyout actual border, one govern- tected species may be tariffs or other means. Fees and led the crowd in the
offers. There were environ- ment or the other would found along the Califor- would be wildly unpopular oath. “Can I have a pledge
mental concerns and law- have to buy large amounts nia border and at least and tariffs would likely run — a swearing? Raise your
suits. Some 650 miles of bor- of private property as well 39 federally endangered, afoul of the North Ameri- right hand,” Trump said.
der fencing now sits on the as land owned by at least threatened, or candidate can Free Trade Agreement. “I do solemnly swear that
border, including roughly one Indian tribe whose ter- species live along the Ari- I, no matter how I feel, no
15-foot tall steel fencing matter what the conditions
in many urban areas that of the hurricanes or what-
is designed to stop or slow ever ... will vote on or be-
border crossers on foot and fore the 12th for Donald J.
vehicle barriers, which are Trump for president.”
shorter steel posts filled with Florida’s Republican prima-
cement and planted in the ry is March 15.
ground. Just getting that Trump has faced past ac-
built was a challenge and cusations that his rhetoric
a new, taller wall like the veers toward far-right na-
one Trump wants would tionalism or fascism.
almost certainly face as Mexican President Enrique
much, if not more, opposi- Pena Nieto was the latest
tion. First, a 1970 boundary to compare the billionaire
treaty governs structures businessman to Adolf Hitler
along the Rio Grande and and Benito Mussolini based
Colorado River at the Mexi- on some of the rhetoric
can border. It requires that he uses on the campaign
structures cannot disrupt trail.
