Federal border officials pressed the case today for a border wall — even as Democrats showed no sign of yielding to President Donald Trump’s $5.7 billion funding request.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials hosted a background press briefing to highlight the value of barriers as part of a broader system that prevents illegal entries.
“The barrier itself is the backbone of the system,” said one CBP official at the briefing, which was held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. The official added that a barrier is “not as effective without technology or without access roads.”
The federal government has been shut down for 26 days amid a standoff over Trump’s border barrier requests, which Democrats have rejected.
The administration argues barriers are needed to quell illegal immigration, although arrest levels in fiscal year 2018 remained below annual levels during the previous decade. In contrast to today's CBP briefing, a 2017 DHS report said "the southwest land border is more difficult to illegally cross today than ever before." Border arrests, a rough metric for illegal crossings, were lower in 2017 than in any year since 1971 (though they rose again in 2018.)
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04.24.2024