Three U.S. Senators spoke out against President Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall along the United States-Mexico border during a visit to the Customs and Border Protection inspection station in downtown El Paso.
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) is the ranking Democrat on the on the Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations and told NewsChannel 9 that “One thing this visit has underscored for me is that President Trump’s proposal to build a wall would be a waste of taxpayers’ dollars.”
Cardin was joined by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) and Sen. Edward Markey (D-Massachusetts).
The three met with Mexican government officials during the and toured the United States-Mexico border including the inspection station in El Paso.
Their goal was to learn more about immigration and border security.
Cardin said building the wall is a bad idea because it’s expensive and wouldn’t keep drugs out.
He said, “A wall will not protect us from an infiltration of drugs. The way drugs come into America, most come in through the commerce so it’s coming through the port itself.”
He added, “We know they’re using drones and we know they know how to get over walls so that’s not going to help.”
He also said the wall could cost in “excess of $21 billion.”
“That’s resources we could be using for better technology,” he said.
The other senators agreed that money would be better spent increasing security by improving technology.
Sen. Markey said the Border Patrol wants “different types of drone surveillance equipment that could monitor what goes on at the border. That would be helpful to them.”
Sally Tarango crossed the border into the U.S. Sunday afternoon and told NewsChannel 9 she also disagreed with Trump’s plan to build a wall.
She said, “Most immigrants come to work – not to steal or kill. The thing I think he should do is have more security.”
All the visiting senators proposed new immigration reform instead of trying to build a wall which they said could hurt United States-Mexico relations.
(Information from ElPasoProud.com)
