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From Sea to Shining Sea? No Border Area Lawmaker Supports Trump’s Wall

© AFP 2023 / Sandy HuffakerBorder Patrol agents patrol the United States-Mexico Border wall during Opening the Door Of Hope/Abriendo La Puerta De La Esparana at Friendship Park in San Ysidro, California on Saturday, November 19, 2016
Border Patrol agents patrol the United States-Mexico Border wall during Opening the Door Of Hope/Abriendo La Puerta De La Esparana at Friendship Park in San Ysidro, California on Saturday, November 19, 2016 - Sputnik International
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Making promises is a way to get elected, but as US President Donald Trump is finding, keeping them is a lot harder. A key Trump campaign pledge, to build a “beautiful wall” along the country’s nearly 2,000-mile Mexican border, has run into a barrier of its own: finding the money to pay for it.

Ongoing budget negotiations over how Trump's border wall will be paid for have smacked into the barricade formed by every single elected federal official — in both the House and the Senate — from every US border territory from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean, according to Americasvoice.org.

Children play at a newly built section of the U.S.-Mexico border wall at Sunland Park, U.S. opposite the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico November 18, 2016 - Sputnik International
Government Shutdown Looms as Trump Demands Funds for His Border Wall

None of them, it turns out, wants this wall built.

As reported by Sputnik, US lawmakers who represent citizens in those regions that border Mexico are unanimously opposed to the creation of Trump's wall, and they are not shy about propagating their position.

"As representatives of the communities that make up our southern border, we recognize the need for robust border security and infrastructure to ensure public safety and increase cross border commerce," stated Representatives Will Hurd (R-TX) and Martha McSally (R-AZ) in a letter last month to senior officials in Trump's administration.

"However, we also have an obligation to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and as such have a number of questions," the two affirmed.

Other regional US lawmakers have been less measured in their commentary on the Trump border wall.

"There is no way in hell I support the request for $1.4 billion in border wall spending. My view on the wall is that we should bulldoze the existing structures," said Representative Filemon Vela (D-TX).

In the US Senate, regionally-based US lawmakers are similarly positioned, as ranking Senators Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and John McCain (R-AZ) — two long-serving legislators who do not routinely see eye to eye — have both gone on record to refute the necessity or utility of Trump's wall, advocating instead for increased funding for educational and economic resources as a means to limit the arrival of undocumented immigrants from Southern and Central America.

Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn has made no secret that he does not support funding Trump's wall, pointing out repeatedly that the gigantic and hugely expensive barrier is an unnecessary expense and is ill-advised.

The White House is running out of time, as their insistence on including the money to build Trump's wall within an upcoming budget bill to keep the US government functioning is due in just one week.

Many Republicans would like to see the budget line item for Trump's wall removed from the bill, but the White House has not budged, indicating that a dramatic legal showdown is in the offing on Capitol Hill next week.

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