US
President Donald Trump’s long promised border wall is actually “the
least effective way” to protect the country’s southern border, says a
Republican lawmaker from Texas. GOP Representative Will Hurd told the
Hill on Saturday that he expects the Republican-controlled House of
Representatives to pass a bill on immigration that does not include any
wall while it is “narrow and bipartisan.” He further asserted that the best way to
tackle the issue of illegal immigration from Mexico is to use new
technology rather than building a physical wall, for which Trump has
demanded more than $25 billion and will take more than 10 years.
Activists and immigrants march towards the US-Mexico border
in support of passage of the Dream Act February 7, 2018 in San Ysidro,
California.
Hurd, however, acknowledged that the president has “has evolved since the campaign.” "I think most Americans think that we are
utilizing the latest and greatest technology along the border. We are
not,” said the San Antonio-based lawmaker. “A lot of the technology we
are using is 20 years old.” The lawmaker’s district has 820 miles of
rugged terrain along the border with Mexico, which Trump has said must
pay for the wall. Along with California Democratic
Representative Pete Aguilar, the Texas lawmaker is behind the USA Act,
which promotes “smart” technology on the border. “This is the only legislation that has real bipartisan support in the House and the Senate,” he asserted in the interview. Read More:
The lawmaker also supports permanent
legal status for recipients of the Obama-era Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which Trump said in September 2017
that he would rescind. "I try to talk about solving real
challenges, and not having hard edges," Hurd said. "I believe ... that
if the Republican Party in Texas doesn’t start looking like Texas, then
we’re going to have problems in the future." Trump has vowed to crack down on
immigration in part by building a wall on the Mexican border and
rescinding DACA, but he has failed to get his complete agenda through so
far. Since campaigning for the 2016
presidential election, the New York billionaire has been accused of
stoking racial, ethnic and religious tensions lurking within America.
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