We all have heard and read of the ‘The Great Wall of China.’ It is built across the northern borders of China to protect the country from the invasions and raids conducted by various nomadic groups of the Eurasian Steppe.
However, in today’s time, its not ‘The Great Wall of China’ which is making Trump – The President of United States (U.S.) heart leap. It’s the so called proposed ‘U.S. – Mexico border Wall’, which has hit the rocks again.
While declaring national emergency from his White House Rose Garden, Trump feared he might be entering a maze. But, his dream of delivering his promised wall seems bigger than his fears. Going against the odds, he went ahead with the announcement, despite signing the spending bill from Congress which allocated U.S. $ 1.375 billion for constructing 55 miles of the wall.
These funds were U.S. $ 5.7 billion less than what he had demanded.
Having denied funds by the Congress, Trump is left with no option but to use the funds from military construction projects which he can only use when there is a national emergency. The total cost of setting-up a wall running through 2,00 miles is in tune of U.S. $ 23 billion.
“We will have a national emergency, and we will then be sued, and they will sue us in the 9th Circuit, even though it shouldn’t be there, and we will possibly get a bad ruling, and then we’ll get another bad ruling, and then we’ll end up in the Supreme Court, and hopefully we’ll get a fair shake and we’ll win in the Supreme Court”, Trump said
He has always been vocal that El Paso, Texas, is safer because of border fencing built there in 2008. For the records, the Customs and Border Protection, a federal law enforcement agency, had detained 400,000 people along the Southwest border in 2018.
He assumes that having a wall at the U.S. – Mexico border will help in curtailing illegal immigration, crime and drug trafficking. However, the Democrats find the wall expensive, ineffective and immoral, as spending a huge amount of U.S. $ 23 billion will severely impact the U.S. economy.
It is to be noted that because of this difference the U.S. Government suffered a shutdown in January 2019, which lasted 34 days. The shutdown made U.S. withdraw from the World Economic Forum, held earlier this year at Davos, Switzerland. It was with great difficulty that a deal was struck. Though Trump was not happy with the deal, but he had little choice, with Republicans also urging him to accept the proposal.
Now, with emergency declared, Democrats having a right to terminate the emergency, if both House vote for it, and Trump having an option of exercising his first veto, the drama is unfolding every day.
With so much happening on the wall front, we all have to now wait and watch how things develop in this long war between Trump and the Congress.
