President Trump on Thursday said that a steel barrier is more important than technology for border security, telling reporters that physical structures are the only way to top illegal flows into the U.S. along the southwest border.
“You can have all the technology in the world,” Trump said outside the White House before departing to Joint Base Andrews and a flight to Texas to review border security. “I’m a professional at technology. But if you don’t have a steel barrier or a wall of some kind, strong, powerful, you’re going to have human trafficking, you’re going to have drugs pouring across the border, you’re going to have MS-13 and gangs coming in.”
He added that the drugs, criminals and gangs sometimes come through checkpoints and between the checkpoints, “where you don’t have any barriers.”
Trump wants Congress to approve $5.7 billion for 234 miles of steel barriers along portions of the Southwest border, a demand Democrats in Congress have rejected. Short of declaring a national emergency and go around Congress to fund the wall, Trump needs the Democratic House on board with his plan.
Currently, there is 654 miles of vehicle and pedestrian fencing and barriers along parts of the Southwest border that were installed during the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama following passage of the Secure Fence Act in 2006. The bill authorized up to 700 miles of fencing.
President Trump’s 30-foot steel barriers appear to be more robust, and certainly taller, than the existing structures. But technology deployments are generally far less expensive and give Border Patrol agents situational awareness, something they say is still needed even with physical barriers, so that they can react to intrusion attempts.
Various types of technologies are already in place along the border, including different kinds of cameras, radar, ground sensors, and communications systems that allow Border Patrol agents to react to attempts to enter the U.S. illegally between ports of entry. The technology deployed so far doesn’t cover the entire southwest border and like physical barriers isn’t full-proof in that agents are still needed to react to intrusions. Customs and Border Protection officials in the past have lauded technology deployments for improving situational awareness where the systems are deployed and for help in interdicting illegal immigration and drug flows into the U.S.
CBP has also been defending the need for more physical barriers on the southwest border.
The impasse over the border wall has led to a three week old shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security that has no end in sight. Trump has threatened to declare a national emergency if Congress doesn’t come onboard with him on the wall. By declaring an emergency, the president believes he can fund construction of the wall.
“But if we don’t make a deal, I would say it would be very surprising to me that I would not declare a national emergency and just fund it through various mechanisms,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question. Later, during the media gaggle, Trump said, “we have a tremendous amount of funds, tremendous, if we want to do that, if we want to go that route.”