Trump's border wall: To build or not to build?

Voters elected Trump to build the wall

Re "Trump firm on border wall demand" (Dec. 26): One of President Trump's major campaign promises was to build the wall. He won — obviously the people want the wall built.

There is a government shutdown (don't you wish you were one of the government employees getting extra paid vacation time), because Trump wants money to work on the wall.

Congress needs to respond to the will of the people and provide funding for the wall.

The $5 billion is about one-tenth of one percent of the federal budget — a very very small price to satisfy the voters.

Dale Ranta

San Diego

GOP voters must notice they've been lied to

Trump's promise, "Mexico will pay for the wall, Mexico will pay for the wall."

So what happened?

Trump's new art of the deal, "Make taxpayers pay for the shutdown again, make taxpayers pay for the shutdown again!"

Got to love that brilliant GOP strategy.

Robert Tormey

Escondido

Dip into military budget for wall funding

If Central American refuges, mostly women and children, smuggling drugs across our southern border are the biggest threat to the defense of our country, then why not take 0.7 percent of the Department of Defense's budget of $7161 billion for the $5 billion to build the wall?

Robert Cain

Kensington

Many border walls and fences already exist

Re "Trump just wants a wall to protect Americans" (Dec. 22): Like most people who support this border wall, this reader has probably never been to the border. There is already a huge wall. It is manned day and night.

Since 9/11, security at all our borders hums like a bee hive. Border patrol officers are everywhere you look. It is not easy to get into the U.S. If not a wall than a fence stretches the length of the border.

Why is it that some Americans feel so threaten by immigrants? Murderers and rapists? Gang members? These are the very fears that have been leveled at every incoming migrant since the birth of this nation. The only people justified in hurling these accusations are Native Americans whose lands we robbed and overran in the name of Manifest Destiny.

Gregory Adams

San Diego

Don't waste money on ineffective structure

In the history of mankind, no country, ruler, or kingdom has ever built a wall that has deterred desperate or determined people from going through, around, under, or over it.

If the president really wants to spend $5 billion — probably much more — on a cement structure that won't accomplish much, here's my suggestion: Build a pyramid in one of our beautiful deserts. It won't have any more functionality than a border wall, but we know a pyramid will attract millions of tourists, which will be good for the local economy.

Richard Hicks

Cardiff-by-the-Sea

In a way, Mexico will pay for the wall

We've all heard President Trump say "We're going to build a wall and Mexico is going to pay for it!" It's estimated that illegal aliens cost the U.S. government about $135 billion a year. They pay roughly $19 billion in taxes, which leaves a negative cost of $116 billion.

Hello Democrats! Give the president the $5 billion he's asking for and let's get the wall built and border security beefed up. The U.S. can save billions of dollars each year if illegals are kept out. So in a roundabout way, Mexico will pay for the wall.

Steve Aldridge

San Diego

Let's let the experts weigh in on the wall

I am for border security. Every nation needs border security; however, I am not sure "the wall" is the answer.

I've never heard any meaningful discussion about the best way to secure our boarders. It seems that Trump gets an idea and pushes it without meaningful consultation or debate. I would like to hear a group of experts discuss the best way to secure our southern border and stop the flow of illegals into the U.S. These people need to be objective experts - not Trump "yes people".

Ronald Harris

Scripps Ranch

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Jeanine Pirro: President Trump, you must keep your promise to build the wall -- You cannot buckle

With all due respect, I would like to direct my "Opening Statement" to the president of the United States.

Mr. President, I understand the pressure that you are under from every side, but the wall at our southern border is a promise that you made, ran on got elected on and must keep. But more than that, it is your legacy and you cannot allow them to force you to compromise. So, here we are, days before the Christmas holiday and you are facing the most important issues that Americans elected you to confront, your promise to build the wall.

Now there's never been a president more dedicated to fulfilling a campaign promise than you. Unlike just about every other president in recent memory, you say what you mean and you mean what you say.  That is why your base is so loyal to you and continues to grow. You have done what no other resident has had the fortitude to do. The wall is no different and you must fulfill this fundamental promise to the American people.  You cannot buckle.

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Now, there's no question that on January 3rd, your presidency will face even more obstruction and resistance by the Democrats than you have seen in the last two years. They will stop at nothing. They are callously salivating at the prospect of your collapse. The only way to go into this is to let Pelosi and Schumer know that now, they are going to have a fight every step of the way. They will have to deal with the toxic environment they created.

No one has your strength, Mr. President.  Your perseverance or your determination.

You instinctively understand what needs to be done and how to do it and you need to build this wall.

Stop with the rhetoric. Seventy-five percent of our government is open and the wall is the will of the American people. 

Your meeting in the Oval Office with Pelosi and Schumer was a turning point in your presidency.  The arrogance, disrespect and condescension by these two members of Congress was shocking.

Schumer, was unable to look you in the eye and Pelosi was instructing you, that the wall was a non-starter and that you did not have the votes.

Nancy Pelosi said to you, "The fact is, you do not have the votes in the House."

You told her, "Nancy, I do and we need border security."

Well, Mr. President she found out you had the votes.  She is a liar and an obstructionist and I might add, the whole lot of them are hypocrites.

Remember when Chuck Schumer said this, "Illegal immigration is wrong, plain and simple."

And when Hillary Clinton said this, "I voted numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in."

And even Barack Obama said, "We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked."

These hypocrites wanted a wall until Donald Trump wanted a wall, until Trump promised a wall.

They simply will do whatever they can to stop you from succeeding. Their hatred of you, Mr. President is so intense and so vindictive that they would rather destroy you and America than destroy the drug cartels, gang members and the human traffickers coming over our border.

Schumer, Pelosi and their gang of haters ignore the fact that 90 percent of the heroin coming into our country, killing our loved ones comes from Mexico.

And Nancy and Chuck, you don't want to put a wall up to stop that?

We have spent tens of billions of dollars to fight heroin, but you don't want to spend five billion dollars to put up a wall to stop heroin for good?

Nancy and Chuck, you both know this year, ICE agents seized enough fentanyl to kill every person in the United States, but you don't want a wall to stop it.

Don't you want to stop the human traffickers? The child smuggling?  And the coyotes raping young women, claiming that they are "family"?

Isn't this what every law-abiding American wants?  What is with this open border nonsense?  And you call us racists, heartless and cruel?

I'll tell you what's heartless. It's a number of Americans that are killed by drugs pouring over our porous namby-pamby fence border. It's the number of illegals and Democrat sanctuary cities who kill innocent Americans.

You want to throw down the welcome mat to illegals and with open arms, shower them with health care and education and housing.

Yes, you will have a fight from every side, but what is clear to the American people is that these Democrats have no respect for the rule of law and want to attack it.

Their sanctuary cities endanger the safety of our citizens. It's just insanity.

The only time the rule of law matters to these left-wing haters is when it's the campaign finance law, but the protection of our country and its citizens, who gives a damn?

So we shut down the government. OK, it's been shut down 20 times. Let's be clear. All essential personnel continue to work.

The shutdown does not affect Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, the military or other essential branches and after the shutdown, all the other non-essential employees are paid.

So stop with the rhetoric. Seventy-five percent of our government is open and the wall is the will of the American people.

So now, there's talk of compromise for those of you who want a lesser amount than $5 billion, that number is simply inadequate.

How many caravans need to come through before we realize that we need a wall? And the money from last year's budget, can only be used to fix a fence and for those of you who think that's enough, consider this.

An eight-months pregnant woman was able to scale the fence to get to the American side to deliver her baby. Do you really think that that is the kind of wall we need?

Mr. President, the American people are tired of our government standing with illegals over American citizens.

They are tired of the destruction of the rule of law in our country and everything our Founding Fathers fought for -- I don't care who owns the shutdown and neither do they.

We voted for you and you have not failed us, so while the Senate goes home for Christmas, you remain in Washington.

I am pleading with you, on behalf of the American people, who believe with every fiber of their being that if anyone can get it done, you are the one who can and will.

This is your moment in history. Just do it. Thank you, Mr. President.

Adapted from Jeanine Pirro's monologue on "Justice with Judge Jeanine" on December 22, 2018.

No, President Trump. Reagan didn’t try to build a wall.

When you are a conservative losing an argument, say it was what Ronald Reagan would have done.

President Trump was the latest Republican to try that familiar gambit, with a tweet Thursday morning that claimed his border wall would be the culmination of what Reagan tried and failed to achieve:

Chalk up another lie. In fact, Reagan thought a barrier on the border was a terrible idea. He was asked about illegal immigration during an April 1980 Republican primary debate with George H.W. Bush. This was a debate in Texas, no less, where voters were more sensitive than most to border issues. The answer, he argued, was more migration, not less.

"Rather than ... talking about putting up a fence, why don't we work out some recognition of our mutual problems and make it possible for them to come here legally, with a work permit, and then while they are working and earning here, they pay taxes here?" Reagan asked. "And when they want to go back, they can go back, and they can cross. And open the border both ways, by understanding their problems — this is the safety valve right now they have with that unemployment."

You can watch it here:

The 40th president would work diligently over the next six years for a major overhaul of the nation's immigration laws. He considered the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 a significant part of his legacy. Yet today, in the interest of pushing the buttons of the GOP base, even his own son misrepresents what it was meant to do, and how events played out:

While it is true the act produced the largest legalization program in history, that was precisely what it was intended to do. To Reagan, "amnesty" was not a dirty word. "I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and who have lived here, even though some time back, they may have entered illegally," Reagan said during a 1984 presidential debate.

Where the act fell short — no doubt in Reagan's eyes, as well as those of pretty much everyone else of both parties who supported it — was in its enforcement provisions. While it did call for tightening security, its chief mechanism for cutting down on illegal immigration was a provision that, for the first time, made it illegal for an employer to knowingly hire a worker who was not in the country legally. Reagan and the drafters of the legislation recognized that barriers at the border mean nothing so long as the magnet of economic opportunity is drawing migrants to this country.

That was the most contentious element in the act, and the biggest hurdle to its passage. Until then, harboring an illegal immigrant had been a felony, but the 1952 "Texas Proviso" stated that hiring one didn't violate the law. Under the 1986 law, employers can face civil penalties of $250 to $10,000 for each of those employees.

What never materialized was any realistic means of enforcing the new requirements for employers. In hiring, they often just look the other way at workers they have reason to believe are in the country illegally, for which they are rarely punished. This month, an undocumented housekeeper who was literally making Trump's bed at his New Jersey country club told the New York Times that the president's own businesses have been lax in assuring that their workers are in this country legally.

Both parties have been guilty of not cracking down on employers who flout the law. "There are never enough federal budget resources," its chief authors, former congressman Romano L. Mazzoli (D-Ky.) and former senator Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.), wrote in The Washington Post in 2006.

"Another is that administrations of both stripes are loath to disrupt economic activities — i.e., labor supply in factories, farms and businesses," they added. "And we know that disruptions in the labor supply are the natural, unavoidable and even desirable consequence of strong border and workplace enforcement."

Reagan and Congress made other miscalculations in writing the 1986 act, including by making it too inflexible to meet the changing needs of the labor market. As a result of its various unanticipated consequences, the number of people estimated to be living in the United States now is, by various estimates, two or three times as large as it was when the law was passed.

In his farewell address, Reagan evoked his favorite metaphor of America as a "shining city" and went on to say that "if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still."

Though his immigration law did not live up to its promise, Reagan's basic idea was sound. The flow of illegal immigration should be considered at both ends: the desperation that drives people to leave their own countries, and the underground economy that exploits them in this one. Even better, consider ways to both accept more immigrants legally and maximize their contributions to society once they get here. Instead of building a wall, let's consider whether a better kind of bridge makes sense.

Crowdfunding campaign would build 'giant escalators' to defeat Trump border wall

Congress isn't the only place battling over border wall money.

The crowdfunding website GoFundMe also has turned into a major battleground, with the president's supporters asking average Americans to pony up — and some enterprising opponents seeking ways to foil whatever wall emerges.

Luke O'Neil started a page Thursday to, in his words, "build a giant escalator over the wall."

"The wall is never going to be built, but just in case it is, we will build a series of giant escalators that are spaced out a half-mile along the wall on either side, and if that doesn't happen, we'll just give the money to people who care about the well-being of human beings no matter where they're from," Mr. O'Neil said.

He also was quick to note that the escalator is "a metaphor," and he pleaded with authorities not to investigate him for aiding immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.

His effort came just days after Brian Kolfage started a GoFundMe campaign with a goal of raising $1 billion that he says will go to the wall.

He's a long way from that target, but he has made a serious start, with more than 260,000 people pledging nearly $16 million as of Sunday afternoon.

One anonymous donor pledged $50,000 Thursday night, but the vast majority are low-dollar contributions.

Mr. Kolfage, who is a wounded veteran, says he has been in contact with the administration to figure out how to turn the money over.

His effort has been featured on Fox News, helping earn eyeballs and, presumably, more cash for the endeavor.

It also has sparked the reply campaigns like Mr. O'Neil's escalators or another effort to fund ladders to climb the wall.

Ladder campaign organizers said they are hoping to tap "the coalition of reasonable adults" to show their opposition to the border wall. They, like Mr. O'Neil, said if no wall is built, they will donate their cash to immigrant-rights groups.

Mr. O'Neil told The Washington Times he didn't think anyone would send money, but once they did, he figured it could be put to good use by donating to the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services.

"Usually it's impossible to parody the delusions of the Trumpist cult but something about the idea of thousands of MAGA nanas with terminal Facebook brain wasting the last of their Christmas gift money and red faced dads taking out a second mortgage on their hot tub dealerships to own the libs and support Mr. Trump's imaginary racism wall seemed too good to pass up," Mr. O'Neil told The Times in an email. "It's the perfect encapsulation of the intersection of loneliness and cruelty that binds all these weirdos together."

Those on the immigrant-rights side of the issue had previously had some success using crowdfunding to help pay application fees for "Dreamers," immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children, who seek to claim protection under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or to raise money for legal fees to fight deportation.

But until now, the pro-Trump side has been struggling online.

A number of build-the-wall campaigns had popped up on GoFundMe over the years, with little success.

One of the more successful ones had been started in August by Steve Sprague — and had raised less than $1,000 as of Sunday.

Mr. Sprague told The Times earlier this year that he had investigated and found out that private citizens can gift money to the government. They can't earmark it for a specific project, but they can direct it to a department, he said.

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‘We Can Do This’: Florida Veteran’s GoFundMe to Build Border Wall Raises Over $16 Million

A triple amputee Air Force veteran and motivational speaker is asking the 63 million Americans who voted for President Donald Trump to chip in $80 apiece for a border wall.

The total would meet Trump's request for $5 billion to build a wall, with $40 million to spare. As of Sunday morning, Brian Kolfage had raised about $16 million for a wall on the US border with Mexico.

Trump said Wednesday, amid debate over a potential government shutdown, that Mexico would indirectly pay for the wall via a trade deal and that the US military would build it.

"Even if we get half, that's half the wall. We can do this," Kolfage writes on his verified GoFundMe, which had more than 218,000 donors as of Friday evening.

Kolfage had the idea about a year ago but decided to move forward Sunday because of "inaction from our politicians," he told CNN via email. He is surprised by the amount of money he's been able to raise, he wrote.

"I've been receiving thousands of emails from citizens who have waited in line to become Americans and completed this process the legal way. They are so thankful for this," he wrote. "They are giving and they are from both sides of the aisle, and that's why this movement is growing so fast."

While the campaign has a goal of $1 billion, the Destin, Florida, man who lost both legs and his right hand in Iraq says $1 billion is GoFundMe's max and he's working to have it increased. The most successful GoFundMe effort to date has raised more than $22 million and counting in the last year for the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund, which provides counsel to victims of sexual abuse and harassment.

A call to stop 'illegals'

The grandson of immigrants who arrived in the United States "legally," he says, Kolfage is working with the White House to establish a point of contact for the money. US Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Mississippi, plans to introduce a bill directing the Treasury Department to issue bonds to fund the wall, though there are other options "on the table," Kolfage says on the GoFundMe page.

"We haven't spoken directly to the President but would like to," he told CNN via email. "After all, this is for his campaign promise. The people are yelling, and I hope he listens."

The veteran is working with a law firm to craft a binding document to ensure all money goes to the wall, and if the goal isn't reached, all donations will be refunded, he said.

Saying Trump has "followed through on just about every promise" he made in his campaign, Kolfage says it's every citizen's duty to help Trump overcome Democratic resistance to the wall and "make America safe again."

"Too many Americans have been murdered by illegal aliens and too many illegals are taking advantage of the United States taxpayers with no means of ever contributing to our society," the husband and father says in soliciting donations.

While it's unusual for Americans to kick in money above what they pay in taxes for government functions, it is not unheard of. Financier David Rubenstein has donated tens of millions to restore the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Arlington House and US Marine Corps War Memorial as well as give the National Zoo $9 million for its panda conservation efforts.

Life after horrific mortar wounds

Billing himself as the "most wounded US airman to survive his wounds," Kolfage says on his personal website that as a speaker, he can motivate groups and "inspire them to be better people in their daily life."

In a 2012 CNN profile, the Detroit native said he started his Air Force career in the security forces and traveled to Iraq and Kuwait after 9/11. By September 2004, he had caught the war bug, he said, and unsuccessfully volunteered to head to Balad Air Base, north of Baghdad.

Rather than give up his quest, Kolfage found a young airman who had been selected for the trip and tried to scare him, telling him he would get his legs blown off if he went to Iraq. The recruit bailed, allowing Kolfage to make the trip, he said.

On September 11, 2004, after a night of customs enforcement work, Kolfage awoke in the afternoon. Shortly after leaving his tent, he heard a blast that rendered him unconscious. When he came to, he learned a mortar had landed feet away from him, horrifically wounding him.

His friends would later tell him that while moving him to a stretcher, they had to hold his body parts in place for fear they'd fall off. In the on-base trauma center, the doctors tending to him "looked like they were scared s***less," he told CNN.

He woke up two weeks later in Ward 57 of Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Doctors there told Kolfage he was the most seriously injured airman ever to survive his wounds, he said.

"If you saw those pictures, you would say, 'There's no way that guy lived.' Everything looked like it went through a meat grinder," Kolfage said.

No longer able to enjoy surfing, hockey or his service in the armed forces, Kolfage found a new calling in the architecture program at the University of Arizona, graduating in 2014 among the top in his class.

"I wouldn't say I'm glad I got injured," he told CNN in 2012, "but it made me the different person I am today." He called his ordeal "a big life lesson that no matter how grim something might be, you can make something positive out of it."

CUMMINS: How to build a Yuletide wall

Dear President Trump,

You don’t know me, but you should. I can help you and would be honored to become an official adviser inside the White House. From what I hear, it’s like a circus in there without a ringmaster, who uses a whip. And as your staff members come and go like bees searching for nectar, they’ll never ever taste honey. And do you know who and where your cabinet members are? And now that you’re looking for a new chief-of-staff, I’m not interested. From what I know about that job, it’s like he’s herding cattle needing their horns cut off.

Now, you’re relying on several of your children to give you official advice, but if one of them should get sick of it and leave, I’d be interested in that lofty position. But let me ask this. Not that I want to serve for the money, but are they on the bloated government payroll, and do they pay taxes like I do? Just asking.

I can partially empathize with you, but you wanted that job. Was it that you despised the Clintons or wanted to take another ego trip? You certainly have tough problems every day with practically every other country in the world, but now American women are feeling their oats. You’ve had vast experience with three wives and other types of social relationships with women, who were super models. What refined social tastes you have.

What I’m getting at is, whereas a woman’s place has previously been in the home to serve her husband, it’s now in Congress to serve her country to make it great again by employing the so-called women’s touch. You know what that kind of touch has done for you.

Next month, the new Congress will take office, which results in the weak Democrats taking control of the House. During my vast experience with various women, I’ve observed them gradually taking control of their own houses. And now, after the last election, a record number of women were elected for what else but rigid control of our government like hardline American men have never experienced before.

I’m sure you’ve heard the word, “impeachment” carelessly thrown around. My advice: don’t worry about it. Go ahead and do your job, which is essentially dealing with three types of affairs â€" foreign, domestic and personal. Before I send my eight-page resume and am interviewed by your son-in-law, Jared Kushner, or the first lady, here’s my advice.

You should cut back on personal affairs. The American people expect a virtuous president. In foreign affairs, you have Putin and The Little Rocket Man, whom you shut up, but please double check his nuclear arsenal. And you have several nut-case leaders of other friendly countries, who are in over their deficient heads. Go meet them at summits and lay your law down to them.

Thanks for sending your emails informing me which Americans are horrible and those few that are not. And it’s amazing how well you can distinguish fake news from what’s on CNN. Now, as for money you need to run in 2020, I’m running short. You see, I’m looking for a health-care plan that will cure what ails me. Not that you had anything to do with it, but psychiatrists charge way too much.

Domestically, you’re right. The Trump Wall will protect us from most every harm. But when you met with the pathetic Democrat leaders, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, you told them you would shut down the government unless Congress appropriates $5 billion to build the Trump Wall, which would also protect Democrats and everyone else who doesn’t love America like you do.

Taking my advice might save you. Begin a campaign to sell bricks to build the wall, like Girl Scouts sell cookies. Involve children in schools to teach them patriotism and obedience to their president. Have schools hold intra-school competitions like basketball games where children can see how far he/she can throw a brick. Sell the bricks for $5, or $10 for an engraved one. Think gobs of cash pouring in and communities reuniting again. This sounds absurd, but it’s not as dumb as you people in Washington, who do little else except investigate each other.

With your unlimited vision, your dream of an aesthetic wall, partly wrapped in barbed wire in extremely dangerous places, will be realized when you see that monstrous thing stretching from sea to shining sea.

Have a prosperous New Year and see what you can do for me.

â€" Contact Terry Cummins at TLCTLC@AOL.com.