Washington - In a wide-ranging request for
documents and analysis, President-elect Donald Trump's
transition team asked the Department of Homeland Security last
month to assess all assets available for border wall and barrier
construction.
The team also asked about the department's capacity for
expanding immigrant detention and about an aerial surveillance
program that was scaled back by the Obama administration but
remains popular with immigration hardliners. And it asked
whether federal workers have altered biographic information kept
by the department about immigrants out of concern for their
civil liberties.
The requests were made in a December 5 meeting between Trump's
transition team and Department of Homeland Security officials,
according to an internal agency memo reviewed by Reuters. The
document offers a glimpse into the president-elect's strategy
for securing the US borders and reversing polices put in place
by the Obama administration.
Trump's transition team did not comment in response to
Reuters inquiries. A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland
Security and US Customs and Border Protection declined to
comment.
In response to the transition team request, US Customs and
Border Protection staffers identified more than 400 miles (644km) along
the US-Mexico border, and about the same distance along the
US-Canada border, where new fencing could be erected,
according to a document seen by Reuters.
Reuters could not determine whether the Trump team is
considering a northern border barrier. During the campaign,
Trump pledged to build a wall and expand fencing on parts of the
US-Mexico border but said he sees no need to build a wall on
the border with Canada.
One program the transition team asked about, according to
the email summary, was Operation Phalanx, an aerial surveillance
program that authorises 1 200 Army National Guard airmen to
monitor the southern border for drug trafficking and illegal
migration.
The program once deployed 6 000 airmen under President
George W. Bush but was downsized by Barack Obama, a move blasted
by some conservatives who argue the surveillance is vital to
border security.
The transition team also asked for copies of every executive
order and directive sent to immigration agents since Obama took
office in 2009, according to the memo summarising the meeting.
Trump has said he intends to undo Obama's executive actions
on immigration, including a 2012 order to allow children brought
to the U.S. illegally by their parents to remain in the country
on temporary authorizations that allow them to attend college
and work.
The program, known as DACA, collected information including
participants' addresses that could theoretically be used to
locate and deport them if the policy is reversed. Another
request of the transition team was for information about whether
any migrant records have been changed for any reason, including
for civil rights or civil liberties concerns, according to the
internal memo seen by Reuters.
A Department of Homeland Security official, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said the agency interpreted the request
to mean the transition team wanted to make sure that federal
workers were not tampering with information to protect DACA
recipients and other migrants from deportation.
On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to deport more
undocumented immigrants, a promise that may have prompted the
transition team's request for information about the feasibility
of expanding temporary detention facilities.
The internal memo summarising the meeting between Trump's
transition team and US Customs and Border protection said the
team had requested a comprehensive picture of border security as
well as resources available for walls and barriers.
The Department of Homeland Security official said agency
representatives who attended the meeting believed the request to
include both the northern and southern borders. US Customs and
Border Protection then prepared a report on specific locations
and costs of building a fence along the US-Canada border.
Reuters reviewed a copy of the report, which estimated the
cost of building fencing along the northern border fence would
be $3.3 billion and cover 452 miles along border of Canada and
the states of Washington, Idaho, Montana, New York, Vermont, New
Hampshire and Maine.
Adding 413 miles of fencing on the southwest border would be
more expensive, according to the estimate of $11.37 billion,
because it would be aimed at keeping pedestrians as well as
vehicles from crossing.
Pedestrian fences require more staff and would cost $11.2
million per mile versus $4.1 million per mile to build to build,
according to the report.
In fiscal year 2015, the latest year for which data is
available, border patrol agents apprehended 2 626 illegal
migrants on the US-Canada border compared to 331,333
apprehended on the US-Mexico border.