US House Approves Spending Bill To Fund Donald Trump’s Mexico Border Wall. An $827 billion package passed by the House through 235-192 votes has a provision of $1.6 billion for the building of the border, which Trump believes is crucial to prevent illegal immigration and smuggling of drugs inside the United States.
The $827 billion package passed by the House through 235-192 votes has a provision of $1.6 billion for the building of the border, which Trump believes is crucial to prevent illegal immigration and smuggling of drugs inside the United States.However, the bill needs to be passed by the Senate – where the opposition Democrats are in a large strength – before it can be signed into law by the US President. The Democratic leadership has been opposing tooth and nail such a move of the Trump Administration.
“He (Trump) said it would cost $4 billion to $6 billion. The fact is it could cost as much as $30 or $40 billion. And he wants a down payment for that wall in this bill. One poison pill,” she said.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley described the move to build the border wall as immoral and ineffective.
“A wall along the US-Mexican border will not make the United States safer nor more secure,” he said.
The Democratic National Committee Chair, Tom Perez, in a statement alleged that Donald Trump’s border wall is a massive waste of taxpayer money that will not make US safer.
“Like many of the president’s policies, this initiative is rooted in nothing more than prejudice and fear mongering. And as with so many of his campaign pledges, he has broken his promise to Americans that they wouldn’t pay a dime for this wall,” he said.
The Trump Administration, however, asserted that the country needed the border wall.
“We need the border wall. The border wall is one more tool in the toolbox that might prevent some of the things from happening,” Tom Homan, the Acting Director of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told reporters at a White House news conference.
“That is why what President Trump is asking us to do, that is why what he’s proposing for border security makes sense for the law enforcement community. We need this help. We need these executive orders to make sense of what we do every day,” Mr Homan said.
Lorella Praeli, director of immigration policy and campaigns at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the wall would further Donald Trump’s discriminatory anti-immigrant agenda and worsen Customs and Border Protection abuses in the 100-mile border zone and for immigrants seeking safety and a better life.
