The $5 billion in border security funding will build 215 miles of border wall – just 100 miles of new fencing – and President Donald Trump is not going to "capitulate" on the demand, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told The Dallas Morning News.
"He doesn't intend to capitulate," Sen. Cruz told the paper. "He's not going to."
At more than $23 million per mile, the $5 billion is going to replace 115 miles of border wall on the border with Mexico and add another new 100 miles of barrier, a demand Cruz called "very reasonable," according to the report.
The Senate has opposed using the 50-vote, simple-majority – also known as the nuclear option – with its voting rules that usually require a 60-vote supermajority. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has rallied his Democrats to stand firm in their resistance to obstruct President Trump's border wall.
"[Schumer's] plan B is to draw an unreasonable line, insist we leave our border unsecured and then shut the government for as long as it takes to cause the president to capitulate," Cruz told the News.
President Trump submits illegal immigration costs the United States $285 billion annually.
"The wall will pay for itself on a monthly basis," Trump said, per the News. "I mean, literally, every month it pays for itself. So we're talking about small amounts of money."
There is already 700 miles of barrier on the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, most of that authorized under former President George W. Bush's administration with the Secure Fences Act of 2006.
The high priority sections of new and replacement wall include segments in South Texas around Laredo, Texas, Yuma, Ariz., and El Centro, California.
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