WALL WITHOUT SUPPORTS

When Donald Trump made his main promise to tightly isolate the United States from Mexico with a nine-meter wall, no one took him seriously. Despite his supporters calls to Build that wall!, perhaps they hardly believed that implementing such a project would be difficult, if feasible at all. After all, the issue has been discussed more than once always causing serious controversy. However, when Trump became elected unexpectedly for many, it turned out that he was still committed to build the wall. He actually turned the wall into a symbol of his confrontation with numerous political opponents. For thousands of immigrants, though, the wall can become a symbol of their crushed hopes...

To build and to strengthen

Trump believes that a solid wall will finally help "stop the humanitarian crisis on the border" with Mexico, which is a product of the inflow of migrants from Central America, and protect Americans from drug dealers and criminals. The death of a border guard officer in Texas and serious wounding of another border guard only strengthened Trump's determination. Apparently, the support of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who "always said that the wall works," meaning the 700-kilometer barrier separating Israel from the West Bank, influenced the American president as well. "They also had a situation when people were flowing across the border. Their wall stopped 99.9% of these people," Trump said referring to Israeli prime minister.

Indeed, the idea is not new for humanity, as everyone knows the Great Wall of China, the Roman Wall, the Croatian Wall, the famous Berlin Wall, etc. There are also many dividing structures in the modern world such as the one between South Korea and North Korea, between Afghanistan and Pakistan, between Saudi Arabia and Iraq, the Moroccan wall, Ukraine wants to build a wall on the border with Russia. But it is very effective. Actually, the American-Mexican wall has long existed — Trump actually wants not to build it, but to complete its construction and to strengthen it. George Bush Jr. also tried to build a wall on the Mexican border. He even signed a law on a safe wall in 2006, and by 2009, more than 900 kilometres of dividing structures have been installed. However, if in some parts of the border (for example, at the entrance to the border town of San Diego), the wall is well-controlled and improved with surveillance systems, serious patrols (helicopters, off-road vehicles) and a wide alienation strip, in other areas it is just a weak barbed wire maximum. The height of the fence and building materials vary from concrete, steel pipes to pressed cars. It is clear that such a construction cannot stop the smugglers, while immigrants looking for the 'promised land' take on a longer and more difficult road, for example, through the Sonoran Desert or the crossing in the Baboquivari Mountains. Tens of kilometres through the heat and without water often lead to the death of people - from 1994 to 2009 more than 5,600 illegal immigrants never reached the United States.

Taking the above into the account, Trump has a truly ambitious construction project in mind. It should stretch for 1,600 km covering more than half of the U.S.-Mexican border. The rest of the wall will go through hard-to-walk places such as rocks and mountain rivers. But the most important thing is that the wall should be of the same type and from the same material throughout its length.

Protests

Unlike Netanyahu, Trump is far less understood in his own country. For example, the Democrats and liberal media claim that Trump's intention contradicts American values, as the president attacks immigrant families and separates Americans. Politicians are supported by environmentalists, indicating that the wall will also require the construction of roads and infrastructure, which can cause irreparable harm to the environment - vegetation and especially animals, because it will interfere with their natural migration. There are legal problems as well. The 1889 treaty between Mexico and the United States prohibits any activity that impedes the free flow of the Rio Grande River, which runs along the border. Thus, in some places the wall will have to be moved away from the changing riverbed and some U.S. households are at risk of being in 'no-man’s territory' outside the wall. In addition, many ordinary Americans simply do not like that so much budget money will be spent on the wall.

Obviously, the construction needs a lot of money. Initially, Trump assumed that Mexico would pay for the construction of the wall, but it would be strange if Mexicans agreed. Therefore, Trump is trying to secure funding from the federal budget. Even before the 2018 elections to the Congress, the Republicans had managed to carry through the lower house a document allocating $5.7 billion to build the wall, but the bill did not pass through the Senate. At the same time, Nancy Pelosi, re-elected chair of the U.S. House of Representatives, said that the Trump Wall would not receive funding under any circumstances. Due to the disagreements between the Republicans and Democrats on funding, the U.S. government announced a federal shutdown on December 21, 2018 — a situation when the federal government is forced to partially or completely suspend the activities of federal agencies and departments. Shutdown lasted a record 35 days and affected 800 thousand federal employees. On February 14, the Senate approved a bill to finance the U.S. federal government until September 2019 to avoid a new shutdown, but the budget provides for only $1.37 billion to build the wall, although Trump insisted on $5.7 billion. As a result, the president introduced a state of emergency on the southern frontier of the country, trying to secure financing through the Congress. This is possible thanks to the 1976 bill on emergency regulations, which deals, for example, with the construction of facilities necessary to ensure national security. Another part of the funds may be withdrawn from programs aimed at curbing drug trafficking.

But presidential actions did not go unanswered. One of the most influential human rights organisations in the U.S. — American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 16 states led by California (Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico , New York, Oregon and Virginia predominantly governed by the Democrats), and a group of landowners in Texas filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, demanding that the state of emergency at the border be cancelled. The statement says that the redistribution of the budget violates many laws and basic constitutional principles, including the principle of separation of powers. Indeed, in the United States, the right to dispose of the budget belongs entirely to the Congress and a dangerous precedent can be created when the president acts in direct confrontation with the Congress. The Trump administration does not agree with his opponents, saying that the state of emergency has been announced many times in the past leading to the redistribution of funds. So, most likely, the proceedings will reach the Supreme Court, and the president is very positive about this. "We'll possibly get a bad ruling, and then we'll get another bad ruling, and then we'll end up at the Supreme Court and hopefully we'll get a fair shake," President Trump said.

Also, Trump is trying to break the resistance of California dominated by Democrats and whose governor and prosecutor constantly argue with the presidential administration both because of the wall and environmental issues, Internet regulation, immigration, etc. In particular, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that it was cancelling grant funds for California’s high-speed rail system between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The formal reason was that the project was constantly stalling and growing in value. California Governor Gavin Newsom stated that the White House was just settling scores with him.

Completely different story

Most likely this is true, because for Trump the construction of the wall is of fundamental importance. He therefore wants to achieve victory by all means. It’s only two years until the next election, and the president urgently needs a substantial political victory, otherwise he will be constantly reminded that his main election promise has never come true. It is likely that Trump does not even hope to build a wall. Perhaps he does not really want it. The main thing for him is to start and to leave the office with victory.

But whoever wins the dispute, the barrier on the Mexican border has already become an infamous object. Even if there is a well-built wall preventing the humanitarian crisis that Trump is talking about, this will solve the problem on one side of the border, the American side. On the other side, problems will only grow. It was the U.S. that has actually contributed to the endless flow of migrants on the US-Mexican border by carrying out for years controversial economic and ideological policies in Latin America. But this is a completely different story.