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Agence France-Presse

Even as Donald Trump vacillates between toning down his harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric and reaching out to minorities, he remains unshakable on one central campaign promise: building a wall on America’s border with Mexico.

“We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities,” the Republican presidential candidate said as he accepted his party’s nomination last month.
It’s an idea experts say is as useless as it is unrealistic. Though that has hardly given Trump pause.
“I will build the greatest wall that you have ever seen,” he elaborated at a recent rally. “That’s a Trump wall, a beautiful wall!”
“And who’s going to pay for it?” he asks at his events.
“Mexico!” his energised supporters roared back.
Trump says his success as a construction magnate guarantees he can build such a wall but has provided few details.


The 3,200km US-Mexico border runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, crossing arid, sparsely populated territory as well as urban centres thick with inhabitants.
After initially promising to build a new barrier running the entire length of the border, Trump now says only half actually needs to be covered because the physical terrain acts as a natural barrier along the rest.
But if he’s clear about the length, what about the height? Trump has variously mentioned 10.5 metres up to 27 metres.
“The wall just got 10 feet higher!” he’s said when Mexican officials repeated that their country has no intention of paying a dime.

He is just as vague about the cost – US$4 billion, then “six or seven” billion, “probably eight”, and “10, maybe 12”, before finally settling at “around US$10 billion.”
However, architects and engineers dismiss that figure as entirely unrealistic given even the minimum predictable costs.
Trump’s plan calls for prefabricated concrete panels reinforced with steel rods, heavy materials that present immense logistical challenges: paving roads for access, building multiple sites for pouring concrete and hiring armies of workers over several years.
The wall would require foundations deep enough to ensure stability and discourage tunnelling.
A 12-metre concrete wall using a “post and panel” system sunk three metres below ground would cost at least US$26 billion, according to the Texan wall expert Todd Sternfeld.

Trump dismisses such figures, however, pointing to China’s ancient, 21,000km-long Great Wall.
“They didn’t have cranes. They didn’t have excavation equipment,” he says. “We need 1,000 miles and we have all of the materials.”
Key differences that make the comparison irrelevant go unmentioned – that China’s wall consists of separate parts built over centuries at a human cost that’s unthinkable today.
Obstacles in the way of the Great Wall of Trump, as he’s called it, don’t stop there.
In the vast American South, border areas are often private property. Securing the land for a wall would require multiple expropriation procedures and legal headaches.

It has been tried before. The border already is bristling with barriers and fences, much of it built through the US$2.4 billion Secure Fence Act signed by former president George W. Bush in 2006.
The Rio Grande River, which forms the border between Mexico and Texas, presents another major obstacle.
Laws prohibit construction that would impede flood management or interfere with the sharing of resources.

A treaty meanwhile prohibits either country from diverting the flow of water.
But beyond the multitude of intractable obstacles facing a Trump wall, its basic sense remains highly questionable.
“If you build a 30-foot wall,” the comedian John Oliver has said, “all it’s going to do is create a market for 31-foot ladders.”
Critics point out that drug traffickers have found ways of transporting their products over or under border barriers whatever their size.
Moreover, as a 2006 study by the Pew Hispanic Centre found, nearly half of illegal immigrants in the United States enter through classic entry points such as airports before simply staying on their expired visas.
Speaking in Des Moines, Iowa on Saturday, Trump said he would crack down on people who overstay, proposing a tracking system to ensure illegal immigrants can be quickly removed, and an electronic verification system to prevent illegal immigrants from gaining access to social security and other benefits.

“If we don’t enforce visa expiration dates, then we have an open border - it’s as simple as that,” he said.
Last week he said he was softening his plan to deport all 11 million illegal immigrants, which drew fire from conservatives who wanted him to stand fast after he won the Republican presidential nomination in large part by his hardline stance.
In outlining his views, Trump said addressing illegal immigration is important to helping Americans find jobs.

“Every time an African American citizen, or any citizen, loses their job to an illegal immigrant, the rights of that American citizen have been violated,” he said. “Equal protection under the law must include the consistent application of our immigration laws.”
Trump said his first priority upon taking office next January would be the immediate deportation of thousands of illegal immigrants who are still in the US despite having committed crimes.
“These international gangs and cartels will be a thing of the past. Their reign of terror will be over. In this task, we will always err on the side of protecting the American people – we will use immigration law to prevent crimes, and will not wait until some innocent American has been harmed or killed before taking action,” he said.
He did not explain how his plan would affect illegal immigrants who have been in the US for decades and obey the law.


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The Great Wall of Trump: expensive, unrealistic and useless, experts say

Donald Trump is still pushing his Mexico border wall plan at rallies, but experts say it’s a virtually impossible task without serious money behind it. Photo: Reuters

Donald Trump, 2016 Republican presidential nominee, speaks during the 2nd annual Roast and Ride in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., on Saturday, Aug. 27, 2016. Ernst, who in 2014 won the Senate seat vacated by Democrat Tom Harkin when he retired, has turned her Roast and Ride into the conservative answer to the Harkin's legendary Steak Fry fundraiser, which auditioned dozens of presidential candidates over its 37-year history. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

An overhead view (U.S. top and Mexico bottom) of families gathering to meet at a border fence on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Monday, Feb. 15, 2016. The immigration reform organization gathered families and border residents from Southern New Mexico, Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, for a balloon release and to read aloud a letter sent to Pope Francis, who travels to the border town for a one-day visit Thursday. (AP Photo/Ivan Pierre Aguirre)

TOPSHOTS -- AFP PICTURES OF THE YEAR 2014 -- A man looks out towards the US from the Mexican side of the border fence that divides the two countries in San Diego on August 20, 2014. At least 57,000 unaccompanied children, most from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, have crossed the border into the United States illegally since October, triggering a migration crisis that has sent US border and immigration authorities into a frenzy. AFP PHOTO/Mark RALSTON

In this photo provided by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a silver Jeep Cherokee that suspected smugglers were attempting to drive over the U.S.-Mexico border fence is stuck at the top of a makeshift ramp early Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012 near Yuma, Ariz. U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Yuma Station seized both the ramps and the vehicle, which stalled at the top of the ramp after it became high centered. The fence is approximately 14 feet high where the would-be smugglers attempted to illegally drive across the border. The two suspects fled into Mexico when the agents arrived at the scene. (AP Photo/U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

DES MOINES, IA - AUGUST 27: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at the 2nd annual Joni Ernst Roast and Ride event on August 27, 2016 in Des Moines, Iowa. Trump joined a number of Iowa Republicans who also spoke. Stephen Maturen/Getty Images/AFP == FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==

Dave "Human Cannonball" Smith holds up his passport before being shot out of a cannon over the U.S.-Mexico border fence from the Playas de Tijuana area of Tijuana, Mexico to Border Field State Park in San Diego Saturday, Aug. 27, 2005 in San Diego. The stunt was part of the Insite '05 border art exhibit. The work titled "One Flew Over the Void" is by Venezuelan artist Javier Tellez. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

A man in Mexico looks up at the border fence separating the U.S. and Mexico where it extends into the Pacific Ocean after a storm caused damage to the fence in San Diego in this January 3, 2006 file photo. U.S. President George W. Bush admitted the U.S.-Mexico border was broken on May 15, 2006 and said he would deploy up to 6,000 National Guard troops there as he responded to mounting pressure from conservative allies to take tougher steps against illegal immigration. REUTERS/Fred Greaves

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