President Trump has tools outside direct funding for the border wall. He can declare an emergency on the US-Mexican border, call up the National Guard, direct them to shoot anyone crossing the border while at the same time constructing a fence to prevent invasion. NO FUNDING NEEDED. Law enforcement and arrests would still be conducted by ICE.
Lastly,, in certain cases the National Guard may be also activated and federalized by Title 10 authority. Article I, section 8 of the U.S. Constitution allows the federal government to call the Guard into federal service in order to execute the laws of the Union, to suppress insurrection, and to repel invasion. Under U.S. Code, Title 10, section 12304, the president can call up to 200,000 reserve troops, including the National Guard, into federal service in order to “augment active forces for any operational mission.” While federalized, the combatant commanders of their respective theatres – and ultimately the president – control the National Guard units. Serving under the president in a federal status, these forces may perform domestic or expeditionary missions. However, even when not federalized the National Guard still has a federal mission to maintain properly trained and equipped units, available for prompt mobilization.
Title 10 & Posse Comitatus In a purely federal status under Title 10, National Guard members are stripped from their domestic policing powers and are subject to the Posse Comitatus Act, which was passed during the Reconstruction Era to prevent the Army from engaging in civil law enforcement activities. Specifically, its intent was to end the use of the Army to police elections in former Confederate states. One of the few exceptions to the restrictions of the Posse Comitatus Act is the invocation of the rarely used Insurrection Act of 1807, which empowers the president to suspend Posse Comitatus and employ federal forces, including the National Guard, within the United States to “suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.”
Source https://www.domesticpreparedness.com/preparedness/the-history-reality-of-the-national-guard/
President Trump has tools outside direct funding for the border wall. He can declare an emergency on the US-Mexican border, call up the National Guard, direct them to shoot anyone crossing the border while at the same time constructing a fence to prevent invasion. NO FUNDING NEEDED. Law enforcement and arrests would still be conducted by ICE.
I think that would backfire badly if he did something like that, at least insofar as shooting anyone is concerned. Posting the troops and such, sure, he could do that, but I think he would have a major screw up on his hands if anyone got shot.
But yes, threatening to move military forces onto the border to secure it is good tactics and good politics. It would discourage people from crossing, and it would encourage congress to fund a border wall.