If Trump's proposal to upgrade/finish the Wall is so abhorrent to Democrats, why did not President Obama demolish the already existing sections?

Where was the concerted effort by those opposed to a wall to remove it?

Trump's specific promise was not to upgrade/finish a wall - it was specifically to build one the height of a stadium and make Mexico pay for it.

He promised a lot of other things too.

Now watch him change his tone and manner and quickly backpedal on everything he said that his party disagrees with.

Politically, the end always justifies the means.

You are indulging in a fair bit of Wishful thinking there rache. If your right, you should love him, he be an Obama clone, & another catastrophe.

I doubt he'll manage half his promises, however if he just stop the climate & alternate energy rort, cleans out the Clinton criminal network, & sorts out the EPA he will be worth every bit of the effort that put him there.

If he opens up the US oil & coal capacity, then tells the middle east to go jump, & sort themselves out, he will have been a great president, one of the greatest.

The wall will be built. In terms of core promises this is the 'core-est'.

It won't be 55' high. Or even 30' high. But it will be built and the Latino illegal crossings will be drastically reduced if not stopped. In terms of payment, you won't see a cheque from the Mexican govt to cover the costs. But a thousand little fees on remittances from the US to Mexico and visa fees and the like will be imposed and/or increased to cover the costs

//But it will be built and the Latino illegal crossings will be drastically reduced if not stopped.//

Ya reckon? I reckon those wily Mexicans will dig tunnels under it. If it gets built at all, which I doubt, because there are a few other problems with the idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wk6rswxQro

//But a thousand little fees on remittances from the US to Mexico and visa fees and the like will be imposed and/or increased to cover the costs//

$25 billion is still $25 billion. If the US can't afford it (they can't) how the hell can Mexico?

It won't work, but it was never meant to work as an actual physical barrier to stop Mexicans. It was meant to win Trump votes, a task in which it succeeded admirably, and can now be dispensed with.

I certainly hope he builds the wall, but I don't see how he can make Mexico pay for it. Whatever the cost, it is worth it to Americans to keep illegals out. A high wall and machine-gun equiped watch towers are the only way to stop the invasion. Given the success of the Great Wall of China in ancient times, it should be a doddle for modern America.

But why didn't the opponents of the wall tear down the existing sections while they had the chance?

Maybe they like the idea,

The mythical wall will go the same way as his other promise to totally dismantle Obamacare.

A few days in and now it's just a modification.

He's since said that the wall may just be "bits of walls" after all.

We've seen the same thing here with horrific Debt and Deficit Disasters that seemed to evaporate within days of a change of government and excuses about how promises should be "in writing" and not things said in the heat of the campaign.

"Meet the new boss - same as the old boss?"

No Rache, the "debt & deficit disasters" are still there like
a roadside bomb waiting for someone to step on it.

I'm well off Topic for that, I apologise profusely. However I'm overjoyed as I now know there is a God ! A former client of mine the inimitable Pasquale BARBARO is no longer with us (sadly) seems he met his maker in the last 12 - 18 hours or so ! Excuse me while I just dab my eyes a little!

o sung wu,

Looks as if his past caught up with him and he couldn't get out of the way!

Is Mise...

One can only hope we hear and see the last of this thoroughly offensive individual, our dear departed Pasquale. All we need now to really make our day almost perfect, is a few others to accompany him in his final journey to the deep deep south? No more the exaggerated swagger, the arrogance, nor the aggressive presence. The smart suits and the exaggerated appetite for expensive European cars.

Now just a lifeless corpse, bearing the inimitable signs of death, the sallow, anemic countenance, as he lays cold and utterly alone, in the main fridge of Sydney's principle morgue, in Glebe. Completely devoid of any further malevolence, calculated to menace some poor sucker (or his relatives) who were imprudent enough to cross this man's explosive, hair trigger temper!

So you knew him well poor Pasquale.
It all sounds a bit Shakespearage.

I don't know anything about that BAZZ - but I can tell you as far as thugs and standover men were concerned he was right up with the best of 'em!

Some overlooked facts about "the wall".

Regardless of the cost of building such a structure (whatever form it may take), the cost of patrolling the length of the wall will be considerable and ongoing.

Regardless of the wall about 40% of illegal immigrants from Mexico don't come over that border - they fly in with all the paperwork and overstay their Visas.

The wall will actually increase the number of illegal immigrants in the US. For decades, most have come into the USA to save some money and then return to Mexico, in the knowledge that they may be able to return someday if necessary - a "circular immigration route". If the border is sealed off completely those still in the USA are more likely to stay, regardless of the improving Mexican economy.

Their history of immigrant deportations are another story with a terrible history of failure with over 20,000 US citizens wrongfully deported and already with a backlog of tens of thousands still waiting to be processed.
Ironically, Obama deported more people than Bush.

It's also interesting that the Trump Signature collection of clothing is made in Mexico and the Ivanka Trump style of Marc Fisher footwear is made in China.

Politics has always been about perception and not fact and never more so than now.

Given the length of the border a wall or fences can only reduce the illegal immigration. The most important factor is to take the sugar off the table by:

1 Making it illegal to hire or let accommodation to illegals and enforcing it with large fines,
2 Give a bounty for turning in illegals
3 Deporting the illegals quickly
4 Banning deportees from ever entering the country again.

Some immigration from Mexico has been at the request of the US government and not all Mexicans are a massive horde of rapists and murderers.

America has a history of several mass deportations of Mexicans.

Mexicans were actually invited en-masse into the USA during WW1 to help with labor shortages but there was a mass deportation in the 1930s.

Again, under the Bracero programme farm labor was imported from Mexico during WW2 to help grow crops and despite requests from rural landholders to keep them there afterwards, they were deported under "Operation Wetback" in 1954, although some were subsequently reprocessed as legals.

We rely on cheap backpacker labor to pick our fruit in the same way.

There has been a lot of negotiation between Mexico and the USA since.

The idea for a wall and stronger Border Patrols actually began under the Clinton administration and that slowed down the circular migration process.

Talks to formalise the process were started under Bush but they were never resolved.

It will be interesting to see how this impacts on the daily lives of Americans when sources of cheap disposable labor dry up.

Are they really taking jobs away from citizens or being exploited to do the work the Americans refuse to do themselves?

Perhaps the wall should stretch around the whole country, just to be sure? Then they can get back to blaming each other for everything they don't like.

There was some time already and where is that wall? No words about that...

Saw a report recently that the money was already been made available
by the congress to build the wall. All it needs is to issue contracts.