Jan Brewer hopes US-Mexico border wall is finished in Donald Trump’s first term
Feb 21, 2017, 2:34 PM | Updated: 2:48 pm
Workers continue work raising a taller fence in the Mexico-US border separating the towns of Anapra, Mexico and Sunland Park, New Mexico, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2017. U.S. President Donald Trump says his administration will be working in partnership in Mexico to improve safety and economic opportunity for both countries and will have "close coordination" with Mexico to address drug smuggling. It will set in motion the construction of his proposed border wall, a key promise from his 2016 campaign. (AP Photo/Christian Torres)
(AP Photo/Christian Torres)
PHOENIX — Former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said Tuesday that she hopes a wall is built along the U.S.-Mexico border within President Donald Trump’s first term, but she recognizes it will be challenging.
“I would really hope to believe that (the wall is built in the first term). I think that they will do everything in their power to be successful,” she told Fox News.
However, Brewer said she knows the border is marked with several spots of difficult terrain.
“I think it’s going to be really difficult, certainly in some areas, that a wall gets built,” she said.
Brewer said she would be satisfied with other means — technology, air surveillance or putting boots on the ground — to monitor areas where it may just be too difficult to build the wall.
Though some may be critical because Trump had promised a wall stretching along the border’s entirety, Brewer said it may become a case of something is better than nothing.
“Any improvement is going to be a major, major improvement,” she said.
Trump signed an executive order late last month ordering the wall’s construction. Plans for the wall were advanced Tuesday, when Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly signed two directives relating to immigration.
In one of them, he called on Customs and Border Protection to “immediately begin planning, design, construction and maintenance of a wall, including the attendant lighting, technology (including sensors), as well as patrol and access roads.”
Kelly described the wall as necessary to deter illegal immigration and called it a “critical component” of Trump’s overall border security strategy.
Earlier this week, the mayor of Douglas, Arizona — a town that sits on the Mexican border — called the wall a waste of money.
“We can do so much even with a little bit of those funds,” he said, adding he could use the funds to improve his city’s roads, schools and infrastructure.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
