Interior secretary on wall: We're not going to cede Rio Grande to Mexico

The Hill ^ | 03/29/2017 | Ben Kamisar

[GIdget2004]

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Tuesday mused about the difficulties of building President Trump's signature border wall on the Mexican border, asserting that America can't give away the Rio Grande to Mexico in the process.

"The border is complicated, as far as building a physical wall," he said during a speech to the Public Land Council in Washington D.C., according to E&E News.

"The Rio Grande, what side of the river are you going to put the wall? We're not going to put it on our side and cede the river to Mexico. And we're probably not going to put it in the middle of the river."

The report also said Zinke admitted that the administration could instead rely on electronic defenses or could skip building the wall in certain areas where terrain may make crossing improbable.

Thanks to a 1970 treaty negotiated between the United States and Mexico, the middle of the Rio Grande serves as the boundary between the two countries in some places. That treaty, as well as the natural shifts of the river, served as a stumbling block to previous attempts to build border fencing and could complicate the Trump administration's push for a wall.

Trump made the construction of a border wall to stem the flow of illegal immigration a centerpiece of his presidential campaign. Once in the Oval Office, Trump almost immediately signed an executive order calling for the wall to be built and the Department of Homeland Security has requested proposals for the wall.

[ViLaLuz]

Just make the Rio Grande a moat.

[Lean-Right]

From what I understand
the 25 billion is to be
appropriated to get the
ball rolling. Trump will
then pass some type of
legislation that will
ultimately result in Mexico
footing the bill.