Cruz also distinguished himself from Dewhurst with his full-throated support for a border wall estimated by the Department of Homeland Security to cost $7.3 billion, or $6.5 million per mile. Cruz defended the border wall proposal even if it meant expropriating private property—a position that the debate’s moderators, WFAA reporter Brad Watson and Gromer Jeffers of the Dallas Morning News, said contrasted with Cruz’s message of fiscal conservatism. “One of the specific powers and responsibilities of the federal government is to secure the borders,†Cruz said. “Property can be taken with due process of law and just compensation.â€
