President Donald Trump told journalists aboard Air Force One this week that he doesn't think a full border wall is needed because of natural barriers that exist along the border.
“You have mountains. You have some rivers that are violent and vicious,” Trump said Thursday, the BBC reported. “You have some areas that are so far away that you don’t really have people crossing.”
Trump advocated having “anywhere from 700 to 900 miles of see-through wall,” the BBC reported. The president also said that the wall should be transparent so that border guards could see into Mexico. An estimated 650 miles of transparent wall already exists along the border; it was built during President George W. Bush’s term in office at a cost of about $7 billion.
Although some drugs have been smuggled over the border with catapults and other similar contraptions, tunnels have also been used by drug smugglers. It was not clear how Trump plans to counteract efforts to tunnel under the border wall, the BBC reported.
Trump said that parts of the existing wall are in bad shape and are currently being fixed. He also expressed again that he wishes to install solar panels on the wall to generate electricity that would help pay for it, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Some conservative groups are becoming concerned that Trump is softening his stance on the border wall, and are worried he will grow softer on immigration as well. Federation for American Immigration Reform spokesman Ira Mehlman said, “We expect he will fulfill the promises he made and we are going to continue to hold him accountable,” the Times reported. “He needs to push Congress to do these things he was elected for.”
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