By Stephen Owsinski:
A man of his word, President Donald Trump announced construction of the wall to shore up our southern border. As per his campaign promise, reality is here and schematic blueprints are being graphed.
“I will build a great, great wall on our southern border…and I will have Mexico pay for that wall! Mark my words.” Those were his words spoken during his bidding for the White House seat, and President Trump has been a firebrand since day one. However, Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, has pointedly stated that his nation cannot and will not pay for the Mexican border wall. So, Mexico declined to send Bob the Builder. Now what?
Despite the Mexican government’s disinterest in the southern border wall project, President Trump tweeted on Tuesday night, illuminating “NATIONAL SECURITY” (emphasis added by Pres. Trump) followed by “we will build the wall.” “We” is definitely a trump card; we shall see.
As the hemorrhage of illegal immigrants flows, what game plan does the Trump team have in place? Are we going to witness two politicos tossing the hot potato to one another while illegal immigrants breach the border, or will someone’s purse strings open? Since President Trump seems to be making relatively concrete statements, is funding already earmarked? If so, what revenue sources? Is President Trump’s negotiating prowess already stoked and the confluence of how he is piecing it all together to be unveiled soon? Time will surely tell.
No matter by whom or how the wall’s construction will be funded, during and after project completion, logistics are crucial, and armed, uniformed men and women don border badges to hold the line.
Customs and Border Patrol
Despite the range of estimable costs to construct the wall—I read anywhere from $8 billion to $25 billion—once completed, law enforcement takes the reins of responsibility to push the northerly tides south. The border wall will extend approximately half of the 2000 or so miles stretching along the four states attached to Mexico. The 2006 Secure Fence Act penned by George W. Bush has a portion of fencing standing without absolute integrity. The Act contains provisions, however, for federal law enforcement to utilize technology—such as cameras, satellites, and unmanned drones—at various border crossings.
The US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), a federal law enforcement agency with an authorized sworn contingent of approximately 21,000 members, has immersed itself in a hiring blitz lately. Even though President Trump issued a “federal hiring freeze” recently, he emphatically made clear that the only exemptions to that freeze are those serving in military and law enforcement roles, as well as those involved in the national security realm. That CBP is beefing up the number of border security agents is a logistical crown. Equipment and tools are gems in that crown, especially since drug cartels, their well-financed thugs, and their heavy firepower do not care to make CBP’s job easy.
Putting our law enforcement in sworn positions without adequate tools to perform the job is tantamount to doing the backstroke in quicksand; that sinking feeling sets in, and the problem festers.
With the economic disparity between our nation and Mexico, the wall becomes a wedge to overcome, and desperate measures will likely ensue. The wall serves as a precarious scale, balancing haves and have-nots, where income levels pare in comparison. Efforts to be among those who have compel novel ways to end up on the prosperous side of the wall, without police detection, making the diligence of CBP agents even more paramount.
Disparity transcends to despair, which ignites desperation. Like tunneling!
One supposition to prevent tunneling is to deepen the wall’s anchorage—burying it at subterranean levels to defeat breaching the border from below—but the desperate measures we talked about likely fuel passions (and cloud judgments) to go as low as possible, like routing to the earth’s core. The deeper people dig, the more perilous their efforts become. The drug cartels have gobs and gobs of cash on-hand to finance a life-sustaining apparatus while digging deep into the earth. Interested in having their contraband on American soil, it behooves the drug cartels to fund tunneling in exchange for having migrants seeking American refuge to “mule” narcotics in the process—a symbiosis with nefarious underpinnings.
In any event, CBP agents are not novices in the cat-and-mouse game at (or under) border crossings. As White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer briefed the media after President Trump signed the orders to build the wall and enforce immigration policies, it was made clear that “federal agents are going to unapologetically enforce the law, no ifs, ands, or buts.”
And we turn to the other immigrant-related thorns.
End of the Road for Sanctuary Cities?
One of the hotly contested issues pertaining to immigration woes in America is the ongoing defiance of several city governments, self-declared sanctuary cities, wittingly harboring illegal immigrants at taxpayer cost. That, too, is now impacted by President Trump’s signature. Particular cities complicit in aiding and abetting people here illegally and being granted refuge in municipal locales stand to see federal funding dry up.
Synonymous with the sanctuary city debacle is the piggybacking efforts of public universities seeking to harbor illegal immigrants on state property funded by taxpayer dollars and federal dole. Known as “sanctuary campuses,” Florida International University is one example refusing to comply with immigration statutes.
Another copycat of the two aforementioned sanctuary concepts is simmering in the restaurant industry, claiming deportation will hamper their businesses if immigrants are not permitted to stay and fill their roles in dining positions. Sanctuary restaurants—that’s becoming a thing!
Throughout his campaign, President Trump extolled how these concepts are not aligned with American principles, and are leeching the nation via illegal presence. True to his word, these endorsements to throttle back federal dollars have, unfortunately, a two-fold effect: sanctuary cities may feel the pinch with a reduction in federal monies, but that also equates to legal residents—bona fide citizens—whose public services may dwindle by a diminution of federal aid.
Some may see this as playing a poker hand, and bluffs may be on the horizon. It is, however, a step beyond what was done prior to January 20, 2017– literally turning a blind eye.
So, the wall construction commences as federal agents prepare to aggregate and deport many to the border’s southern side while others configure how to get around, over, or under it for northern landscape.
Stephen Owsinski is a Senior OpsLens Contributor and retired law enforcement officer whose career included assignments in the Uniformed Patrol Division and Field Training Officer (FTO) unit. He is currently a researcher and writer.
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