Anti-terrorism law would let Trump build border wall through wildlife refuge
The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol says it could use a 2005 anti-terrorism law — the Real ID Act — to all President Trump’s border wall to be built through a national wildlife refuge in Texas, without having to conduct an environmental impact studies. The studies are usually mandated for any new construction on federal lands under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
Trump meets with his ‘friend,’ Mexican President Nieto, for the first time
While in Hamburg, Germany, for the G20 summit, President Trump met with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, for the first time since the start of the American leader’s term. Nieto’s foreign minister, Luis Videgaray, predicted that NAFTA talks with begin August 16.
Building a border wall will be ‘complex in some areas,’ says Zinke
There are geographic and physical challenges to building a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico that will be "complex in some areas," Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said during a tele-conference. The Associated Press said Zinke cited the task of building the wall in Big Bend National Park and along the Rio Grande River, which forms nearly half of the border.
Trump budget asks for $1.5 billion to begin border wall this year
President Trump proposed $1.5 billion to begin construction this year of a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico — a signature promise of his campaign — ramping up to $2.6 billion in the fiscal year that opens on Oct. 1. The wall would be a concrete part of Trump’s policy of strict enforcement of immigration laws, which could drain the farm labor pool because many farm workers are believed to be undocumented.