Republican hopefuls push for border wall, divided over how to pay for it

The rest of the Republican presidential field is uniting around building a wall along the southern border, but they have very different ideas about how to cover the expense.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he would finish what former President Donald Trump started, emphasizing that the 77-year-old had all the legal mechanisms he needed to move forward with the project.

DeSantis, 45, has promised to “impose fees on remittances” that Mexican workers send home to finance construction, and argued that Trump could have done the same instead of saying Mexico would pay for it and then not getting the necessary funds.

Trump himself has backtracked on his notorious 2016 campaign promise.

“When you hear these crazy people back there,” the former president told an Iowa audience last month, motioning to the assembled media, “say, ‘Trump didn’t get anything from Mexico,’ well, you know, there was no legal mechanism . I said they were going to help finance this wall, but there was no legal mechanism. How do you go to a country and say, ‘By the way, I’m building a wall, give us a lot of money’?

“Tariffs could have been imposed on remittances to foreign countries, including Mexico,” DeSantis responded on NewsNation, criticizing Trump for going back on his word.

DeSantis has promised to make Mexico pay for the wall by imposing fees on remittances. AFP via Getty Images

Florida’s governor has some of the most aggressive border policies of any member of the Republican Party, calling for an end to birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants and vowing to “wage war” on drug cartels in Mexico in his immigration plan titled “Stop the Invasion.”

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DeSantis also signed the strongest anti-illegal immigration legislation in the country, making E-Verify mandatory for Florida employers with more than 25 employees and suspending the licenses of any business that knowingly employs illegal aliens.

Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who is rising in the polls to challenge DeSantis, has also said she would be committed to finishing the wall, but has not publicly announced her specific steps.

Haley has a plan to end illegal immigration and has advocated for legal immigration.AP

As governor of South Carolina, Haley signed one of the nation’s strictest immigration laws, the South Carolina Illegal Immigration Reform Act, which requires police to verify the status of anyone they detain or arrest for any reason. and suspect that you may be in the country illegally.

“Nikki Haley supports a comprehensive plan to end illegal immigration and secure our southern border. That includes finishing the wall, defunding sanctuary cities, enacting a national E-Verify program, restarting Remain in Mexico, restoring Title 42, stopping catch and release, starting capture and deportation, and hiring 25,000 more Border Patrol agents and ICE Agents. “Nikki will do the job,” said Haley spokesman Ken Farnaso.

The former South Carolina governor, whose parents are immigrants from India, has used softer language on the issue over the years compared to DeSantis and Trump and has advocated for the importance of legal immigration.

“Immigrants are the fabric of America. It’s what makes us great. We need as many immigrants as we can. We need the skills, we need the talent, we need the culture. We need all of that,” Haley said in 2019 on conservative personality Ben Shapiro’s podcast.

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Trump has attempted to rewrite his 2016 campaign promise to make Mexico pay for the wall. AFP via Getty Images

In 2015, Haley criticized the mere construction of a border wall, arguing that additional reinforcements such as drones and in-person surveillance would be needed.

“Don’t say you’re just going to build a wall, because a wall won’t do,” he said at the time.

Since then, the former UN ambassador has stepped up her barrier rhetoric, saying the United States needs to “finish what we started.”

Haley has also suggested that Republicans and Democrats work in a bipartisan manner to craft an immigration reform plan.

“We shouldn’t wait for another 9/11 to realize that Republicans and Democrats have to get in the room and solve immigration reform and start working for the American people instead of the other way around,” Haley told the show. Face” from CBS News. the Nation” in May.

The issue took on added urgency Tuesday, when U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed that it had apprehended nearly 241,000 migrants attempting to cross the border with Mexico in October, a new record for the month.

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Source: vtt.edu.vn

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