North American Observation丨The "U.S.-Mexico Border Wall Examination" is coming soon.

　　At the time when the new US president is sworn in on January 20, the border wall between the United States and Mexico will also face a "big test."

Starting from the gathering in northern Honduras in Central America, thousands of illegal immigrants heading to the United States have set off.

　　With the end of the Trump administration, will the border wall, the most direct and important concrete embodiment of its immigration policy, continue to be built?

　　At the same time, the era of a new president is about to begin, including US-Mexico relations and what kind of immigration policy the United States will adopt. These are important issues of great concern to the outside world.

Data map: Palm View, Texas, USA. Border Patrol agents are searching for illegal immigrants.

The "U.S.-Mexico Border Wall Examination" is about to start during the outbreak of the Central American immigrant army, Mexico and other three countries are busy preparing

　　Mexico is the only country bordered by land to the south of the United States. There is an extremely long border between the two countries. All illegal immigrants who want to enter the United States from Central and South America must pass through Mexico.

　　It is precisely because of such geographical conditions that the issue of illegal immigration has become a "pain point" that cannot be bypassed in the relationship between the United States and Mexico.

　　Immigration has existed for a long time, and the huge gap between the rich and the poor caused by the uneven economic development between the United States and Mexico, including Central and South American countries, is the root of the problem of illegal immigration.

　　In other words, these illegal immigrants are not longing for the United States. Their main purpose is to escape the violence and suffering in their own country.

The economic recession caused by the spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic and the destruction caused by two hurricanes such as "Ita" in November 2020 has made the situation worse.

　　Today, the border wall and the US immigration policy are about to usher in a "big test."

At present, the new US government’s immigration policy is still unclear. When a large number of immigrants reach the border wall, how will the US respond?

　　Of course, not only the immigration policy of the United States will be tested, but Mexico and other countries along the way will also need to be forced to deal with the test brought about by these immigrants in the environment where the epidemic is raging and spreading.

　　The authorities of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras announced on January 11 local time that they are preparing relevant measures to deal with immigrants from northern Honduras to the United States.

　　This team of illegal immigrants was called on the Internet to gather. Since December 2020, there has been an invitation to form the “Immigration Caravan Team on January 15, 2021” on social networks.

They expect the new president of the United States to relax the immigration policy after he takes office. Some analysts pointed out that these immigrants even calculated the date and wanted to take the opportunity to take advantage of the "quasi-vacuum period of border supervision" when the power of the US president was transferred. Can you "take advantage of the chaos and enter" the United States.

　　People from Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala who are preparing to emigrate all responded to this call, saying that they would join the Honduras team of illegal immigrants halfway through.

Initiated the formation of an immigrant "caravan" team on social networks on January 15, departing from northern Honduras.

　　Authorities of the three countries, including Mexico, said that they will first determine what measures will be taken to deal with this immigrant team, and will also "prioritize helping unaccompanied minors and vulnerable groups."

The governments of the three countries stated that although “immigration is a right”, immigrants must also comply with cross-border regulations, especially the need to show a negative test for the new crown virus and identification documents, including the identification documents of accompanying minor children.

　　But in fact, many immigrants can't even get out their identity documents, let alone a negative test for the new coronavirus.

Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras also announced in a joint statement that they will support "safe, orderly, and legal" immigration and strengthen their efforts to combat "illegal immigrant labor and human trafficking."

　　The mighty immigration team is already on the way, what is their future?

Data map: News from August 1, 2019. Recently, two professors in California used the gap of the high wall on the US-Mexico border to set up a seesaw across the two countries. One side of the seesaw is in the United States and the other is in Mexico. Of adults and children can still play together across the high wall.

Unsolvable "border wall complex" faces impeachment Trump still heads to the US-Mexico border wall

　　Perhaps many years later, when people talk about the name Trump again, the keyword "U.S.-Mexico border wall" is likely to be mentioned together.

　　From the beginning of Trump's 2016 campaign, the "border wall" has become a concrete manifestation of Trump's immigration policy. It is not only one of the core issues of his campaign, but has also repeatedly become a hot topic in the news.

　　After being formally elected President of the United States, Trump did not seem to let go of his "border wall complex."

　　In fact, if the time is adjusted back to January 2017, the new officials will take office three times. Trump’s first job after taking office is the signing of the “Border Security and Improving Immigration Law Enforcement” on January 26, 2017. Order formally instructed the U.S. government to build a border wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and declared that Mexico would pay for the wall.

　　Seeing that 4 years have passed, as of October 2020, the Trump administration has built about 600 kilometers of border walls, most of which include repairs or rectification of the previous border barriers, which have cost billions of dollars.

　　But it is worth mentioning that Mexico did not pay any fees for this.

The cost of building the wall is paid by American taxpayers.

　　On January 12, 2021, at the time when the presidency was less than 10 days in office, and even in the face of being impeached again, Trump still insisted on going to the Alamo town of Texas, USA, to witness the 600-kilometer length The completion of the border wall emphasizes the results of his government’s work on the border wall.

Trump's visit was his first public appearance after the congressional shock incident on January 6.

　　Some analysts pointed out that Trump had previously ordered the construction of a wall in the world during the last few weeks of his term, because Trump clearly knew that this was his so-called "political legacy."

After the shock incident on Capitol Hill on January 6, Trump once again chose to use the border wall as a matter of his little "political legacy."

Data map: A child near the US-Mexico border wall.

President-elect Biden stops building the wall and will he deal with the wave of immigration as soon as he takes office?

　　In fact, Trump is very aware that US President-elect Biden intends to immediately block the construction of the border wall as soon as he takes office, because Biden has mentioned this point during the campaign and has repeatedly repeated it.

　　According to the Pentagon’s report, if President-elect Biden immediately stopped building the wall after he was sworn in, it would save $2.6 billion in expenses.

Because this wall will be one of the most expensive infrastructure projects among federal projects in the history of the United States.

　　Analytical data pointed out that the Trump administration has spent about 15 billion U.S. dollars in building the wall, one third of which came from Congress, and the remaining funds were embezzled from the budget of the Department of Defense, anti-drug programs, and military accounts.

　　Regarding the construction of the border wall, according to media reports, US President-elect Biden is likely to drastically modify Trump's immigration policy after he takes office.

　　If you look back at the “caravan” incidents of Central American immigrants in 2018 and 2019, you will find that in response to the illegal immigrants, US President Trump ordered the strengthening of border control measures and even deployed a large number of military personnel at the border.

　　It also requires the Mexican government to cooperate with the so-called "stay in Mexico" policy of the United States. The Trump administration began to implement the "Immigration Protection Agreement" in January 2019 and implemented the "stay in Mexico" policy, requiring illegal immigrants from Central America who are trying to seek asylum in the United States. Stay in the border city on the Mexican side, waiting for the US court to accept the asylum application.

　　This policy has caused many illegal immigrants to stay in Mexico. Analysts criticized it as a unilateral shirking of problems and responsibilities.

　　The Mexican government emphasized that Mexico should not be blamed for illegal immigration flows.

The Mexican Ministry of the Interior said that it will work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to develop a plan to deal with the issue of illegal immigrants stranded in the country.

It also stated that Mexico will work with the governments of the United States, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to tackle the problem of illegal immigration.

　　Trump previously warned that ending his immigration policy and encouraging immigration will lead to "an unprecedented wave of illegal immigration."

Trump also emphasized in the interview that if President-elect Biden stops building a border wall, "this will be a dangerous policy and our country will become unsafe."

　　However, President-elect Biden of the United States has promised to withdraw the policy of "remain in Mexico".

　　Mexico and other countries are trying to stop this wave of caravan immigration, which may be good news for Biden, because only a few days before the president’s inauguration, analysts on Biden’s team have said: "If Biden just took office, There is a massive wave of immigration, which is really worrying."

　　We will continue to pay attention to how the U.S. President-elect Biden and his advisers will deal with the border wall and immigration issues on January 20.

(Headquarters reporter Sheng Jiadi and Lu Xinglin)