Local Opinion: The threat of the 'Trump Wall'

If and when the “Trump Wall” is completed, it will divide North America from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. The wall may slow down unauthorized crossers, but it will not stop them, and it comes at a very high cost. It is dividing border communities and destroying their economies, damaging public and private lands, religious sites, and it kills wildlife.

We need border security. However, few would agree that will be satisfied primarily by building the 21st-century equivalent of the Great Wall of China or Hadrian’s Wall in Britain. Border Patrol agents and our military leaders are quick to point out the Trump Wall shares the inadequacies of these past such efforts.

Stopping terrorism was the first argument, but there is no documentation of terrorists bent on destruction of our country crossing through the desert over (or under) the U.S./Mexico border. No one has suggested building a wall between the U.S. and Canada where there have been documented cases of terrorists entering by water and air. The greatest documented threat of terrorism in our country is from domestic terrorists.

Then there is the illegal drug trade. Up until the Central American crisis, a large majority of the enforcement efforts by the Border Patrol in Arizona was driving all over the Sonoran Desert to intercept illegal marijuana smuggling. Roadless areas in public lands are in the process of becoming dustbowls. Meanwhile, Arizona and other states (and Mexico) are decriminalizing marijuana use. A large majority of hard drug smuggling from Mexico comes through the ports. More money legitimately could be spent on law enforcement at the ports, and facilitating the economic benefits of legitimate commerce in the region.

The third argument is to stop immigrants. The recent upsurge of people wanting access to the United States are people seeking escape from life threatening conditions in the Central American countries. They show up and surrender to the Border Patrol. The circumstances they have suffered have been exacerbated by U.S. foreign and domestic policies. We want cheap labor, investments from foreign entrepreneurs, and foreign students to subsidize our universities. The core problem is the lack of a comprehensive immigration policy to reconcile these wants . That’s a job for Congress, not the Border Patrol.

In 2005 Congress passed legislation to allow the Department of Homeland Security to waive any and all federal, state and local laws to build a wall across our border with Mexico. It is the most expansive authority for waiving of law by any government agency in our history. This sweeping authority was granted by Congress without any controls, standards, or processes for review. DHS can unilaterally pick and choose which laws it waives and basically do whatever comes to mind that can be remotely tied to the mission of building the wall.

Ironically, Congress did not prohibit DHS from complying with normal procedures for engaging states, border communities and the public in reviewing DHS plans or in providing comments. DHS simply chooses not to do so. It is not clear DHS actually has any planning or plans for review; they are reluctant to say they do. What appears to be clear is they are directed to build a monumental campaign prop for Mr. Trump by November 2020.

The current authorized waivers allow for the Department of Homeland Security unilaterally to discard the grandest ideals and values of our republic and democracy — the rights of citizens to oversee their government and their governance. None of us should find this acceptable and Congress needs to act to stop this danger. It is a blueprint for autocracy.