Wall? What wall?

[initforme]

First no wall...now "we will work with them". Whats it going to be?

 

[waltky]

China tryin' to sneak in under Trump's Wall...

As Trump talks wall, China builds bridges to Latin America
November 18, 2016 — An expected U.S. economic retreat from Latin America under Donald Trump is causing the region's leaders to look halfway around the world, to China, for help weathering the possible financial headwinds.

They'll have the perfect opportunity to make their appeal this week when Chinese President Xi Jinping attends a Pacific Rim summit as part of a visit to Ecuador, Peru and Chile. This is Xi's third time in Latin America since taking office in 2013, and when he wraps up the tour he will have visited 10 countries in the region — the same number as President Barack Obama, who has been in office twice as long. Trump on the campaign trail pledged to break up trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, deport illegal migrants and build a wall to keep out millions from Mexico and Latin America, sending shockwaves across a region that for two centuries has looked northward for policy guidance.

Over the past decade China has displaced the U.S. as the main trading partner in country after country in Latin America as demand for the region's soybeans, oil and iron ore fueled the fastest growth in decades. But more recently, as China's demand for raw materials has been slowing, the region's economies have taken a hit, dampening the once-torrid love affair with the world's second-biggest economy. Margaret Myers, a China expert at the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue, said that most South American countries have awoken to the pitfalls of dependence on commodity exports and would prefer closer ties to the U.S., which buys the sort of manufacturing goods that generate more jobs. "But the question is whether the U.S. will reciprocate," she says. "Nobody in the region is expecting much from Trump in terms of really productive policy. That leaves room for China to play a much more important role."

Some of China's priorities and growing prowess in the region will be on display during Xi's trip. In Ecuador, a dollarized-economy that is battling a deep recession, Xi inaugurated on Friday the country's biggest hydroelectric dam, which was built by a Chinese firm and paid for with some of the nearly $8 billion lent to the country since 2007. From there he heads to Peru, to attend a summit of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group and a meeting with President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a former Wall Street investor who nonetheless chose China for his first foreign trip after taking office in July. The weeklong tour wraps up in Chile, which recently opened a branch of a state-run Chinese bank that will be South America's first clearinghouse for transactions in the tightly-controlled yuan.

Elsewhere, in Venezuela, the head of state-run China National Petroleum Corporation on Thursday signed a $2.2 billion accord to jointly boost oil production needed to lift the OPEC nation out of a crisis marked by severe food shortages and triple-digit inflation. "All of our thanks for all of the support given Venezuela in the difficult years, 2014, 2015 and especially 2016," a visibly pleased President Nicolas Maduro said at the signing ceremony. "Our older sister China has not left Venezuela alone in these difficult times." While Trump's victory has all but killed the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would've included Mexico, Peru and Chile, China continues to court the region with offers to strengthen existing free trade agreements with Costa Rica, Chile and Peru as well as negotiate new ones with Uruguay and Colombia. In the past decade, China's two biggest development banks have pumped in $125 billion to Latin America — more than the Washington-based World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank combined.

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Fearing Trump's wall, Central Americans rush to cross the US border
Nov 18, 2016‎ - Along the route through Mexico, no one was really sure how to say Trump's name. Smugglers called him “El Malo” (the bad one) or “El Feo” (the ugly one) and told the migrants they had better hurry north before his wall went up.

The U.S. agents who took them into custody said he would be president, and it was a new day at the border. “They said it to the whole group: We would all be deported because Trump won,” said Octavio de Leon, 43, a Guatemalan who was detained with his son while crossing into Texas right after the election. President-elect Donald Trump has promised major change to the U.S. immigration system at a time when Central American families are flowing into the United States in growing numbers, many fleeing warlike conditions and poverty back home. Border Patrol has captured more migrants over the past three months than during the same period in each of the past five years.

Central American families have been crossing the Rio Grande into the United States and turning themselves in to Border Patrol agents. A discarded piece of clothing is left near the river’s banks.​

Trump has pledged to build a towering border wall and deport millions, proposals that have been sketched out so far only in broad terms. By winning the election, Trump may have inadvertently made his job even harder. His plans have become a selling point for the smugglers urging people to cross the border before a wall goes up, according to migrants and officials in the United States and Mexico. Others were hoping that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton would win and offer them some form of blanket amnesty, according to Border Patrol agents. So many families have arrived in recent weeks that U.S. authorities announced last weekend that they are sending 150 agents to shore up this portion of border in the Rio Grande Valley.

Here at the border, the obstacles to Trump’s plans appear daunting. To hold, quickly process and deport the tens of thousands of arrivals each month, the Trump administration would have to add scores of immigration judges and dramatically expand detention facilities, which have faced legal challenges. A wall could cost billions.

Some here welcome a Trump crackdown. Many Border Patrol agents resent what they see as a “catch-and-release” approach to the flood of Central Americans. To them, Trump’s win has delivered the morale-boosting equivalent of a Red Bull. “We’re going to be able to do our jobs again,” said Chris Cabrera, a Border Patrol agent and a spokesman for their union, which endorsed Trump for president. “We’ve turned into a detention agency,” he said. “We’re not out there enforcing. We’re doing jailer work and sometimes babysitting.” But analysts, lawyers and elected officials on both sides of the border say it is a place that has always defied easy fixes and expensive barriers.

A change in who crosses

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - an' Trump gonna make Mexico pay fer it...

Congress looks to start building a Mexican border wall within months
January 5,`17 - In a bid to swiftly deliver on one of President-elect Donald Trump's chief campaign promises, congressional Republicans exploring ways to begin funding a barrier on the U.S. border starting as soon as April.

Multiple lawmakers described the plans Thursday, which would use authority under a 2006 law supported by Republicans and Democrats alike to justify spending that could eventually reach into the billions of dollars. From the beginning of this campaign, Trump pledged to “build a wall and make Mexico pay for it.” While the funding under discussion in Congress would be from U.S. taxpayer funds, it would not preclude Trump’s administration from seeking reimbursement from Mexico, as Trump himself has discussed on the campaign trail. “I said Mexico is paying for the wall, with the full understanding that the country of Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such a wall, okay?” he said during an Oct. 22 speech in Gettysburg, Pa. “We’re going to have the wall. Mexico is going to pay for the wall.”

A number of Republican lawmakers believe that Trump has authority under the Secure Fence Act of 2006 to commence construction on a wall. That law, backed by President George W. Bush, mandated 700 miles of “reinforced fencing” along the U.S.-Mexico border along with enhanced surveillance systems that came to be known as a “virtual fence.” But the full complement of barriers was never completed, and GOP lawmakers believe that the law provides sufficient authority to complete a full border wall like that described by Trump. That would allow Congress, without passing a new piece of legislation, to start funding the wall through the normal appropriations process. Current federal spending authority expires on April 28, and Republicans could push to include border wall funding in any spending legislation that would follow. While Democrats could well block a separate border wall bill, it would be more difficult for them to block spending legislation, thus risking a government shutdown.

Local residents walk alongside a high metal wall installed by U.S. workers to replace fencing along the border between Ciudad Juarez and Sunland Park, N.M.,on Sept. 12, 2016. Republican lawmakers are exploring how to use existing law to begin funding the extensive border wall proposed by President-elect Donald Trump.​

Several high-profile Democrats including then-Sen. Barack Obama and current Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer voted for the Secure Fence Act. “It’s an existing law that hasn’t been implemented, in part based on the ideology and philosophy of the outgoing president,” said Rep. Luke Messer (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, who said he was one of several lawmakers pushing the approach. “I see nothing partisan about trying to comply with existing laws.” The Associated Press first reported on the GOP discussions Thursday. Key policy decisions have not yet been made — where to start building, for instance, or whether the barrier ought to be a fence or a solid wall. Messer said a broader border security bill could follow a move to start spending on a wall. “It would be a proposal that would cost billions of dollars to get done, but if it’s an appropriate priority for our country, it’s worth spending that kind of money,” Messer said.

Another lawmaker, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a fierce opponent of illegal immigration said he did not know precisely how Trump wanted to proceed with the wall, but speculated on what his considerations might be. “I think what he’s asking is: What do you have now? What are the assets we have to work with, and what are the challenges for right-of-way acquisition?” King said. “What are the tools they have within the departments? How much money is sitting around in the [Department of Homeland Security] that could be reallocated? What do they have in the books for design, and how much engineering have they done? He’s got the authority to do a lot without moving legislation, but he wants to know what would require legislation.” King said he was not especially concerned that Congress, not the Mexican government, would be writing the first checks. “If we build that wall, and Donald Trump hasn’t figured out how to get Mexico to pay, I’m not going to be the guy who says, ‘Let’s wait until we get this in pesos,'” he said.

Congress looks to start building a Mexican border wall within months

 

[Little-Acorn]

First no wall...now "we will work with them". Whats it going to be?

China tryin' to sneak in under Trump's Wall...

You two have to get together and get your stories straight.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - Trump gonna make `em pay us back fer the wall...

Trump on border wall: Mexico will pay us back
Saturday 7th January, 2017 | Washington - US president-elect Donald Trump on Friday tweeted that Mexico will reimburse American taxpayers for a new border wall and that US money spent will be for the "sake of speed".

His tweet came as top aides consider a plan to ask Congress to ensure money is available in US coffers for the wall, but to rely on existing law that already authorises fencing and other technology along the southern border. The potential approach was confirmed on Thursday by two congressional officials and a senior transition official with knowledge of the discussions; all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter publicly. Trump said in a tweet early Friday: "The dishonest media does not report that any money spent on building the Great Wall (for sake of speed), will be paid back by Mexico later!" Mexico's president and other senior officials have repeatedly insisted that Mexico won't pay for a wall.

Legislative fight

During his campaign, Trump repeatedly told voters if elected he would build a wall along the US southern border and make Mexico pay for it. Trump transition spokesperson Sean Spicer said putting US money up-front "doesn't mean he's broken his promise". In an interview Friday on ABC's Good Morning America, Spicer said: "I think he's going to continue to talk to them [the Mexican government] about that." The approach could also stave off a legislative fight that Trump might lose if he tried to get Congress to pass a measure authorising the kind of border wall he promised during the campaign.

It's not clear how much could be done along the 3 200km border without additional actions by Congress. Lawmakers passed the Secure Fence Act of 2006, but most of those 1 100km have already been built. Some areas are in much better shape than others, though, and long stretches are made up of fencing that stops vehicles but not pedestrians. But whatever steps might be taken without Congress' approval would be likely to fall short of the extravagant new wall on the border that Trump repeatedly said Mexico would pay for during his campaign for the White House.

And despite Congress' involvement in approving any spending, such an approach might also open Trump to charges of circumventing the House and the Senate to take unilateral actions, something he repeatedly criticised US President Barack Obama for doing. A spending bill including money for border construction could also provoke a legislative showdown given potential opposition from Senate Democrats. Still, several lawmakers and congressional officials said the administration could have significant flexibility in taking additional steps without Congress' approval.

Trump on border wall Mexico will pay us back

 

[toomuchtime_]

First no wall...now "we will work with them". Whats it going to be?

There is going to be a barrier, probably part wall and part fence, forty feet high with surveillance devices to detect breaches and beefed up border patrols to respond quickly to any breaches. Either Mexico will agree to pay for it or a surcharge will be put on the $24 billion a month of money transfers from the US to Mexico.

 

[Siete]

Trump, no wall ..

Trumpbots, thats ok can we still suck your dick ?

 

[Moonglow]

First no wall...now "we will work with them". Whats it going to be?

You will have to wait until next week when the official word is Tweeted...