Trump Orders a Wall and Punishment for Sanctuary Cities, But How Will It All Happen?

The border wall begins! Well, sort of. On Wednesday, President Trump signed two executive orders to deliver on one of his most famous and consistent campaign promises. Trump's first order directs the Department of Homeland Security to "immediately plan, design, and construct" the physical wall, and to allocate funds for doing so as provided by the law. The second directs DHS to identify "sanctuary" jurisdictions that harbor illegal immigrants in violation of federal immigrant laws and for the U.S. attorney general to ensure those jurisdictions do not receive federal grant money.

Together, the orders represent the most concrete and consequential policy moves in the first week of the Trump administration. There remain unanswered questions, and chief among them is how Trump intends for Mexico to "pay for the wall" as he so famously claimed they would during the presidential race. Press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters Wednesday at the White House that Mexico would pay for the wall "one way or another," and in his first TV interview as president, with ABC News's David Muir, Trump said Mexico's payment will come "in a form. Perhaps a complicated form." He also told Muir that construction on the wall would begin in months. If that's going to happen, either Mexico is going to have to cut a check soon or Congress will need to appropriate the funds.

"Speak For Itself"

Another tidbit from the executive order on sanctuary cities: a directive to "on a weekly basis…make public a comprehensive list of criminal actions committed by aliens and any jurisdiction that ignored or otherwise failed to honor any detainers with respect to such aliens." What exactly would this list look like—an online database? A publicly accessible document? Would it be reported in a weekly press release or briefing? How would local and state jurisdictions be compelled to report these criminal actions?

I asked the White House for more details and was directed to contact the Department of Homeland Security. Their response? "For now, we're letting the content of the Executive Order speak for itself."

Translation: DHS doesn't yet know how this will work, either. It's a good reminder that for all the "directing" that an executive order says it does, the actual implementation of those orders isn't quite so easy or straightforward. I'm reminded of what our senior editor Andrew Ferguson wrote in THE WEEKLY STANDARD in November, repeating William Safire's account of Richard Nixon's frustrated efforts to do away with an anachronistic government body: