Thread: The military may build part of Trump’s border wall, but it won’t be easy

The military may build part of Trump’s border wall, but it won’t be easy

September 08, 2018 12:00 AM

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is considering a request from the Department of Homeland Security that he spend about $450 million to build part of President Trump’s border wall in Arizona.

But the construction itself could run headlong into time-consuming environmental regulations and the funding may require support from a Congress that is bitterly divided over Trump, the border and immigration.

The Pentagon provided no timeline for Mattis’ decision on Friday. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen sent the request last month after announcing in April that the agency was looking into ways the military could help complete the president’s promised wall.

“We're going to have our wall, and we're going to get it very strongly. The military's going to be building some of it,” Trump said at the time.

The request includes constructing a 30-foot barrier along nearly 32 miles of Arizona's Air Force’s Barry M. Goldwater bombing range near Yuma. The section, which now has pedestrian fencing, would also feature a patrol road and access gates, Lt. Col. Jamie Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said.

The planned barrier and gates “have proven successful along other parts of the southern border,” Davis said in a statement. Overall, the U.S.-Mexico border is nearly 2,000 miles long.

The Navy is doing advance planning and an initial environmental survey of the Air Force land, which includes looking for unexploded ordnance along the bombing range.

The survey could prove key because the project falls under the regulations of the National Environmental Policy Act, according to Naval Facilities Engineering Command.

That means if the Navy finds evidence a new 30-foot barrier could have a significant impact on the surrounding environment, the military will be required to conduct a much more thorough assessment and likely put Trump’s border wall plan out for public comment.

However, the Navy could also decide the wall is exempt from further regulations after its initial survey if it meets one of 45 categorical exclusions and is not seen as an environmental threat.

But the estimated $450 million cost might still pose a tough challenge.

Mattis could take the funding from the Pentagon’s existing budget for military construction. Congress would need to approve a reprogramming request for the money and it could be a tough sell to lawmakers who face seeing other construction projects being cut at bases in their districts and states.

Another option would be requesting the money through Congress’ armed services and appropriations committees. A $450 million project would need its own line item in the 2020 defense budget, but that would likely draw a political fight.

House Democrats including Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, blasted the price tag this week in a letter to Mattis.

“In countless hearings and briefings this year we have heard from senior civilian and military leadership on the readiness challenges our military currently faces,” Smith and Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee wrote to Mattis. “With that in mind, we fail to see how diverting $450 million away from efforts to rebuild military readiness is in the Department or the taxpayers’ best interests.”

There are two emergency options open to Mattis and Trump if they need to sidestep funding roadblocks in Congress.

Mattis could declare the 32-mile section of wall vital to national security. Under federal law that would allow him to spend up to $50 million per year on building it.

Mattis and Trump could also ignore funding limitations and environmental laws if the president declares a national emergency over the project, though the money would still have to come out of military construction coffers, according to federal law.


https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/p...t-wont-be-easy

Even if you get the money from Congress and not through military, I'd still use the Army Corps of Engineers to build it.

Illegal aliens have a SIGNIFICANT impact on our environment, on our lives and in our neighborhoods!

Build that wall and deport them all.

Stop this unrelenting invasion of our country.

Originally Posted by lorrie

The request includes constructing a 30-foot barrier along nearly 32 miles of Arizona's Air Force’s Barry M. Goldwater bombing range near Yuma. The section, which now has pedestrian fencing, would also feature a patrol road and access gates, Lt. Col. Jamie Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said.

Unbelievable! Absolutely unbelievable! We don't even have our military bases protected from invaders. They claim a wall is needed there, I have to guess the invaders walk right through a military base and our military is NOT allowed to STOP them.

and the construction itself could run headlong into time-consuming environmental regulations----If we can't even protect the land owned by the Federal Government and used as a military base, is there any hope for ranchers like the one who did the 25 minute video of the invaders?

If they have to squabble and offer excuses over 450 million, what will they do over 26 billion for the wall.

There will never be $26 billion for the wall with this Congress because we don't have 60 Republicans in the US Senate to pass the bill or appropriate the funding for it. Voters will decide in November if they want a wall or not.

Originally Posted by stoptheinvaders

Unbelievable! Absolutely unbelievable! We don't even have our military bases protected from invaders. They claim a wall is needed there, I have to guess the invaders walk right through a military base and our military is NOT allowed to STOP them.

and the construction itself could run headlong into time-consuming environmental regulations----If we can't even protect the land owned by the Federal Government and used as a military base, is there any hope for ranchers like the one who did the 25 minute video of the invaders?

If they have to squabble and offer excuses over 450 million, what will they do over 26 billion for the wall.

I am researching this as I have found this entire scenario to be shocking
from Wikipedia

The bombing range is among the treacherous access areas southwest of Tucson for Mexican migrants coming to the United States, where many have perished.^[2][3] Aid workers trying to save people from dying have signed up for annual passes, including a waiver of liability for live bombing, but workers have been banned and threatened with trespassing charges, citing property policy that requires everything packed in to also be brought out.^[4] In August 2018, The Marshall Project reported in an interview on Democracy Now! about deaths on this dangerous and off-limits bombing area, where humanitarian aid - like food or even water - is impossible to deliver.^[5] Investigative reporter John Carlos Frey said that a search-and-rescue group Aguilas del Desierto - “Eagles of the Desert” - team discovered a dozen bodies in a small area they were allowed to search for two weekends, but fear at least hundreds more have died there, referencing the mass graves discovered in a Texas cemetery along a migrant travel corridor in 2014,^[6] but the government isn't allowing any further property search.

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If this area is treacherous, why is DHS making it a top priority, and leaving the heavily traveled Rio Grande wide open?

The military allowed rescue workers in to save the invaders!

Apparently the rescue workers left so much trash they were banned.

Although they were banned they were allowed to enter for 2 week ends and found a dozen bodies in one small area they were allowed to search.

I'll say it again, this is unbelievable.

Border Wall Construction Underway
Release Date:
March 30, 2018

Acting Deputy Commissioner announces wall projects in El Centro, San Diego, Santa Teresa, Rio Grande Valley

Construction of the border wall is underway, as several projects begin to take shape along the Southwest border. One project will begin within days, according to Ronald Vitiello, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s acting deputy commissioner.

“We’re on track to replace 20 miles of primary vehicle barrier in Santa Teresa, New Mexico,” he told reporters during a Friday afternoon news conference in Washington, D.C. “Ground breaking is scheduled for early April.”

The projects span the Southwest border from San Diego to the Rio Grande Valley Sector in Texas.

In San Diego, 14 miles of outdated steel plate barrier will be replaced with a bollard structure—hollow steel beams filled with concrete and steel rods. The bollard design provides agents with needed visibility into Mexico while improving protection.

Vietnam-era helicopter landing mats were used to construct the primary pedestrian barrier on San Diego’s border. Without the ability to see through it, the mats hinder agent safety. They’re also easily breached or scaled. Fiscal Year 2017 enacted appropriations provided funding to replace 14 miles of this legacy barrier with a more durable, higher, see through wall design and using steel bollards.

At least two miles of the border barrier in Calexico, California, is already being replaced with 30-foot bollard wall along with four miles of bollard wall in El Paso. Closing gaps along the border in the Rio Grande Valley Sector is also part of the border wall project.

“We’re building 35 new gates along a stretch of 55 miles of existing border wall.” Vitiello said. Construction is tentatively scheduled to start in October 2018.

Along those areas, the barrier is further away from the Mexican border. The gates close gaps in the wall while permitting the U.S. Border Patrol, emergency vehicles and landowners with property on the southern side of the barrier access through an automatic gate.

The Rio Grande Valley Sector will also benefit from 25 miles of new levee wall along the Rio Grande River and eight miles of bollard wall in Starr County, Texas. When fully funded, about 1,000 of almost 2,000 of the U.S. border with Mexico will have border wall and other critical infrastructure.

Vitiello thanked the Trump Administration for their leadership and commitment to border security. He also recognized Congress for their $1.6 Billion “down payment” on the border wall system, which was included in the Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2018. The funding provides for the construction of approximately 100 miles of new border wall.

Over the years, walls have proven their worth, said the acting commissioner. “Our agents and officers have decades of experience and perspective, and they know our operational needs,” he said.

According to Vitiello, the U.S. Border Patrol, from Sector Chiefs to Border Patrol agents in the field, have been vocal about their need for effective barriers that impede and deny the entry of illegal aliens and contraband.

“The truth is, walls work,” Acting Deputy Commissioner Vitiello said. “The data show it, and our agents know it.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/spotlig...ction-underway

Continued research on Barry Goldwater base.....

No More Deaths, and two San Diego-based humanitarian groups, Angeles del Desierto and Aguilas del Desierto Inc., have conducted searches this year in the west desert of Arizona. The Aguilas group has been traveling to the west desert every two to three weeks and has recovered at least 22 remains this year, said Jose Genis Gonzalez, the group's vice president.
Most of the remains were recovered during searches on the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and the Barry Goldwater Air Force Range, Genis said.
The group has posted pictures and videos of several of the remains on its Facebook page in an attempt to identify them.
Twelve of the remains were recovered on the vast bombing range west of Ajo where Air Force jets from bases in Arizona conduct training exercises, Genis said.
Smugglers use the bombing range to guide migrants illegally into the U.S. because they know the area is not patrolled by the Border Patrol, he said. As a result, Genis believes the remains of many more migrants haven't been found.
After allowing searches of the bombing range on May 27 and June 10 leading to the discovery of the 12 remains, officials at Luke Air Force Base turned down the group's request to conduct a third search on the range on July 1 and 2, Genis said.
Maj. Rebecca Heyse, a Luke Air Force Base spokeswoman, confirmed the request was denied. She said there wasn't time to implement safety precautions in the area where the group wanted to search.




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Volunteers from the humanitarian group No More Death put water out for migrants while they search for the body of a missing migrant on June 23, 2017, at the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in the western desert of Arizona.Nick Oza/The Republic

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news...tes/454079001/