Donald Trump expected to sign executive order to start Mexico border wall construction

To many, Trump is going too far with his anti-immigrant policies. To the right wing, he hasn't gone far enough

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published January 25, 2017 1:31PM (EST)

 (AP Photo/Russell Contreras)
(AP Photo/Russell Contreras)

President Donald Trump sent out a Tuesday night tweet that foreshadowed a big day for immigration reform on Wednesday.

The president is expected to sign an executive order to begin construction on the wall while visiting the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday. It remains to be seen how Trump will address the myriad logistical issues surrounding the wall's construction, including its cost, length, feasibility, the starting date of construction, and who will ultimately pay for it.

Later this week, Trump is expected to further please his conservative base on immigration by paring down a program that helps people from vulnerable countries receive refuse in the United States and beefing up screening methods.

That said, he may need to do more to appease his diehard conservative backers. One big sticking point: The fact that Trump hasn't ordered federal officials to stop accepting applications for DREAMers — hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrant children who were protected from deportation by the Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals act.

"It was front and center in his campaign," Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Alabama, told Politico. "Donald Trump got a lot of votes — probably got the Republican nomination in large part — because he said he was going to be aggressive in defending our borders. One of the low-lying fruits is repealing, by executive order, the amnesty executive orders of Barack Obama, and he hasn’t done it yet."


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

MORE FROM Matthew Rozsa


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Border Wall Donald Trump Dream Act Illegal Immigration Immigration