Trump Is About To Sign Off On A Border Wall With Mexico, Here's How Much It Could Cost

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s Homeland Security secretary, John F. Kelly, has been clear about his views on a border wall with Mexico: It won’t work.

When asked by senators about his views on a border wall during his confirmation hearing this month, Mr. Kelly, a retired general, said a “physical barrier will not do the job.”Mr. Trump said on Wednesday that he would order the construction of a wall along the United States-Mexico border, fulfilling his campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration and stop the flow of drugs coming into the United States.

Mr. Kelly said that a wall would be effective only to the extent that it was backed up by far more sweeping measures.“It has to be a layered defense,” Mr. Kelly said during an exchange with Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona. “If you build a wall, you would still have to back that wall up with patrolling by human beings, by sensors, by observation devices.”Rather than depending on a wall, Mr. Kelly said the key to stopping drug smugglers was to attack the problem at its source.

“I believe the defense of the southwest border starts 1,500 miles south and that is partnering with great countries as far south as Peru who are very cooperative with us in terms of getting after the drug production transport,” he said. Mr. Kelly has made similar statements about protecting the border when he led the United States Southern Command, overseeing about 1,000 military personnel.During numerous appearances before congressional committees, Mr. Kelly called for a more balanced approach to protecting the borders, saying security cannot “be attempted as an endless series of ‘goal-line stands’ on the one-foot line at the official ports of entry or along the thousands of miles of border between this country and Mexico.”

He has supported increased aid for economic development, education and a focus on human rights to combat unauthorized immigration and drug trafficking.

During Mr. Trump’s visit to the Homeland Security Department, he is also expected to sign an executive order establishing a new refugee policy that would halt admissions from war-torn Syria and suspend it from other majority-Muslim nations until the administration can study how to properly vet them.

This would reverse an Obama administration policy of allowing displaced people who can be resettled in the United States, such as those from Syria, and effectively bars the entry of people from Muslim countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. Muslim-American groups say the policy will amount to a ban on Muslim immigrants, an idea that Mr. Trump brought up during his presidential campaign.

It remains unclear how his orders will be carried out by Mr. Kelly and the department he oversees, given Mr. Kelly’s previous statements about a border wall and his desire to work with Muslim communities.

During his confirmation hearing, he said that the border wall might not “be built anytime soon.” And Mr. Kelly spoke of his desire to promote tolerance and reach out to Muslim communities, saying that during his stint as a Marine Corps officer in Iraq, his units were able to reduce violence in areas by reaching out to Muslim leaders.

He also said people should not be targeted because of religious beliefs or ethnic backgrounds.Experts say a border wall will face numerous environmental and engineering obstacles and will most likely face lawsuits from landowners on the frontier who would have to give up their land for its construction.