How to Build A Border Barrier

            We may or may not have made progress today, something that will be known over the next few weeks. It all boils down to whether or not Congress wants to be involved in building a wall on the southern border.

            Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) declared that he does not like shutdowns and is willing to “go to extraordinary lengths” to solve the natural security problem. He wants to accomplish this task before President Donald Trump shuts down the government again. He declared today, “I don’t like shutdowns.” He does not want another shutdown, and he does not want President Donald Trump to declare a national emergency. Well, he should have been working on the problem a long time before it became a national emergency! After all, he has been the Senate Majority Leader for a number of years! So what happens if Congress fails to pass a bill that the President will sign?Trump claims that he will build the wall with or without Congress. Can he do it legally?

            Josh Hammer joined Steve Deace on “The Steve Deace Show” today. Hammer is a former clerk on the 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals and is now the editor-at-large for The Daily Wire. Deace wanted to know if President Trump “has the legal authority to build a wall on the southern United States border using executive powers.” A secondary question concerns whether or not Trump using executive powers to build a wall “would be any better than former President Barack Obama when he used executive action to grant amnesty to immigrants who are here illegally.” 

             Hammer read the law straight from the Constitution that gives Trump the authority to build the wall using national emergency powers. Trump does have constitutional authority to do so. “Would it be the right thing politically” is still in question.

            Would it be the same thing as Obama’s action on amnesty for illegal aliens? Hammer says “no.” The difference lies in the fact that Congress had already considered granting amnesty to illegals and had voted against it. Obama did not like the vote, so he took it upon himself to grant amnesty by executive order. Congress has already approved building a wall several times, but the current crop of Democrats refuses to fund it. The entire interview is interesting and well-worth watching.

            I found an interesting and powerful PragerU video narrated by the late Charles Krauthammer. He clearly and intelligently answers the question, “Can America solve its illegal immigration problem both justly and humanely?” He says that it can be done, but the solution requires that a barrier be in place on the border first.

            President Trump obviously understands that a border barrier comes before addressing the problem of illegal immigrants currently living in the United States. Krauthammer emphasizes that America cannot and will not deport all of them. However, more and more illegal aliens will come if the United States grants legalization before the border is secure. We know that this happens because we granted amnesty to 3 million of them in the 1980s and now have 22 million illegal immigrants. Krauthammer also declares that legalization should not include a path to citizenship because we should not reward anyone for breaking the laws of our nation.

            So, we come full circle. How will we build a barrier along the southern border? Will the Democrats stop opposing the President’s attempt to secure the border, or will the President declare a national emergency and have the Department of Defense build the barrier? It sounds to me that the problem has one of two solutions if the wall is to be built.