Zimpapers Logo

Washington — US President Donald Trump took a first step toward fulfilling his pledge to “build a wall” on the Mexican border on Wednesday, signing two immigration-related decrees.

Trump visited the Department of Homeland Security to approve an order to begin work to “build a large physical barrier on the southern border,” according to the White House.

Trump also signed measures to “create more detention space for illegal immigrants along the southern border” according to White House spokesperson Sean Spicer.

“We’re going to once again prioritise the prosecution and deportation of illegal immigrants who have also otherwise violated our laws,” he added.

Stemming immigration was a central plank of Trump’s election campaign. His signature policy prescription was to build a wall across the 3 200km border between the United States and Mexico.

Some of the border is already fenced, but Trump says a wall is needed to stop illegal immigrants entering from Latin America. In 2014, there were an estimated 5.8 million unauthorised Mexican migrants in the United States, according to Pew, with fewer arriving each year before that.

Experts have voiced doubts about whether a wall would actually stem illegal immigration, or if it is worth the billions it is expected to cost.

But the policy has become a clarion call for the US right and far-right — the core of Trump’s support.

Still, any action from the White House would be piecemeal, diverting only existing funds toward the project. The Republican-controlled Congress would need to supply new money if the wall is to be anywhere near completed, and Trump’s party has spent the last decade preaching fiscal prudence.

Furthermore, much of the land needed to build the wall is privately owned, implying lengthy legal proceedings, political blowback, and substantial expropriation payments.

Meanwhile, the Taliban has called on Trump to withdraw US forces from the “quagmire” of Afghanistan, saying nothing has been achieved in 15 years of war except bloodshed and destruction.

In an open letter to the new US president published on one of its official web pages, the Taliban said the US had lost credibility after spending a trillion dollars on a fruitless entanglement. Afghanistan was invaded by the US in 2001 and has become Washington’s longest military intervention since Vietnam.

It has also been the costliest, with more than $100bn spent.

The Taliban justify their ongoing insurgency in the letter, claiming that the group’s “Jihad and struggle was legitimate religiously, intellectually, nationally and conforming to all other lawful standards”.

So far, Trump has had little to say publicly about Afghanistan, where around 8 400 US troops remain as part of the Nato-led coalition’s training mission to support local forces as well as a separate US counterterrorism mission.

Two of Trump’s top security appointments — retired Marine Corps General James Mattis as secretary of defence and former General Michael Flynn as national security advisor — both have extensive experience in Afghanistan.

The Taliban, however, warned Trump against relying on the kind of “unrealistic” reports presented to former presidents by their generals, saying: “They would emphasise continuation of war and occupation of Afghanistan because they can have better positions and privileges in war.”

Calling the ongoing violence as illegal, ineffective, and aimless, the group claimed “the Afghans, as a nation ravaged by war for 38 long years, sincerely want to bring this war to an end”.

“However, they know, despite whatever reasons for previous wars, the principle cause for the ongoing conflict is the presence of foreign occupying forces in our independent country,” the letter added.

“You have to realise that the Afghan Muslim nation has risen up against foreign occupation.”

— AFP