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发帖数: 38600 | 1 TRUMP'S BORDER WALL WITH MEXICO FACES ALL KINDS OF OBSTACLES
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BORDER_WALL?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-03-26-08-11-21
MONEY
Trump promised that Mexico would pay for his wall, a demand Mexico has
repeatedly rejected. Trump's first budget proposal to Congress, a
preliminary draft that was light on details, asked lawmakers for a $2.6
billion down payment for the wall. An internal report prepared for Homeland
Security Secretary John Kelly estimated that a wall along the entire border
would cost about $21 billion. Congressional Republicans have estimated a
more moderate price tag of $12 billion to $15 billion. Trump himself has
suggested a cost of about $12 billion.
It's unclear how much money Congress will approve. Lawmakers have been
balking at his plans to sharply cut other federal spending to pay for the
wall and other boosts to border security, while increasing military spending
. White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters this past week that the
administration was still looking at how the wall would be funded, adding
that it hasn't given up on Mexico footing the bill.
GEOGRAPHY
Roughly half of the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) U.S.-Mexico border is in
Texas and marked by the winding and twisting Rio Grande. A 1970 treaty with
Mexico requires that anything built near that river not obstruct its flow.
The same treaty applies to a stretch of border in Arizona, where the
Colorado River marks the international boundary.
Some fencing that is already in place along the frontier is built well off
the river, in some places nearly a mile (about a kilometer) away from the
border.
Trump will have to navigate not only the treaty maintained by the
International Boundary and Water Commission but also various environmental
regulations that protect some stretches of border and restrict what kind of
structures can be built and where. The contracting notices of March 17 say
the Trump administration wants the wall dug at least 6 feet (almost 2 meters
) into the ground. Along parts of the border in California, environmentally
sensitive sand dunes required that a "floating fence" was built to allow the
natural movement of the sand.
LEGAL CHALLENGES
Nearly all of the land along the Texas border is privately held - much of it
by people whose families have been in the region for generations - and
buying their land won't be easy, as Presidents George W. Bush and Barack
Obama discovered. Lawyers for both administrations fought in court with
private landowners. Obama's efforts to buy privately held land in the Rio
Grande Valley have carried over into Trump's term.
The Trump administration appears to be preparing for the legal fight and
included a request for more lawyers to handle such cases in its budget
proposal. Spicer said this past week the administration would "take the
steps necessary" to fulfill Trump's promise to secure the southern border. | C**********e
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