Vice President Mike Pence will visit Calexico border barrier on Monday
By ANDREA CASTILLO
APR 27, 2018 | 5:00 PM
Vice President Mike Pence will travel Monday to Calexico, where he will spend the morning touring the construction site of the border barrier and addressing Department of Homeland Security and Border Patrol employees.
Air Force Two is scheduled to arrive at the Naval Air Facility in El Centro at 10:20 a.m., according to a White House official. Pence will join Border Patrol officials including Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez, Director of Field Operations Pete Flores and Yuma Branch Director Sylvia Carrizozo to discuss Calexico's border barrier system and replacement project, the official said.
Pence will then talk to local DHS and Border Patrol employees about their work and needs before leaving sometime in the early afternoon.
In February, Pence visited the Rio Grande Valley border near McAllen, Texas, with DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. In March, President Trump toured the border wall prototypes in Otay Mesa.
Trump stirred confusion last month when he tweeted photos of the construction of the Calexico border barrier replacement, saying "Great briefing this afternoon on the start of our Southern Border WALL!" But plans for the project started in 2009, and Border Patrol agents had previously emphasized that it shouldn't be confused with Trump's wall.
The White House official said Pence's visit is part of the administration's work to continue ensuring "effective border security and law enforcement in the southern border."
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/l...427-story.html
Pence to visit Mexico-California border with caravan of asylum-seekers nearby
By ALI ROGIN Apr 30, 2018, 1:21 PM ET
Vice President Mike Pence is visiting the Calexico border wall Monday where he will receive a briefing on the construction of the barrier, get a tour and deliver remarks to Customs and Border Patrol employees.
The construction Pence will visit is a reconstruction project to replace the original wall which was built in the 1990s and is not part of the new border project that President Donald Trump wants, although he did seem to conflate the two in a tweet last month, tweeting pictures of the Calexico project.
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Great briefing this afternoon on the start of our Southern Border WALL!
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12:47 PM - 28 Mar 2018
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A construction workers walks near fencing at a section of the US-Mexico border wall that is being upgraded on April 18, 2018
The original Calexico border wall was built in the 1990s out of recycled scraps of metal and old landing mat, CBP said in a statement in February, when work on the replacement began.
About 120 miles west of Imperial, Calif., where Pence is visiting, a caravan of upwards of 100 people from Central America seeking asylum in the United States were on the Mexican side of the border, outside a port of entry in San Diego.
As of Monday morning, none of the travelers had been processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. On Sunday evening, Border Patrol commissioner Kevin McAleenan released a statement saying that the San Ysidro port of entry had "reached capacity."
President Trump, who has been openly critical of the caravan, was asked about it at a press conference Monday. He said that it had dwindled in numbers, from over 1,000 people to around 100 now, and appeared to attribute that to Mexican immigration laws. He noted that the activists had walked "all through Mexico," remarking that people don't know how big Mexico is as a country.
He used the caravan question to make a call for tougher immigration laws, skirting the actual question being asked, of what percentage of the migrants deserved asylum.
"We need a change in the law. Catch and release is ridiculous. If they touch our country, you catch them and release them into our country. That's not acceptable to anybody," he said.
Previously, Trump had mentioned the caravan during his rally on Saturday night in Michigan.
"Are you watching that mess that's going on right now with the caravan coming up? Are you watching this and our laws are so weak, they're, so pathetic," he said.
The Vice President is expected to deliver his remarks around 2:30 p.m. ET.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/pence...ry?id=54827605
