Physical barriers work in helping stem the flow of illegal entry into the U.S. but its “unlikely” that such a barrier will be erected from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said on Wednesday.
“It’s unlikely that we will build a wall or physical barrier from sea to shining sea but it is very likely I’m committed to putting it where the men and women say we should put it,” Kelly told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Kelly said the men and women of the Border Patrol tell him that there are certain areas where physical barriers will help them combat illegal activity along the southern border and that there are other areas where they don’t need such barriers.
In March, the Department of Homeland Security issued two Requests for Proposal for border wall prototypes to inform future design standards. The RFPs say that ultimately the design and construction projects could lead to various miles of wall along the border from San Diego, Calif., on the Pacific Coast, to Brownsville, Texas, on the Gulf Coast.
Kelly said that a an important function of a physical barrier for border security purposes is to “deflect” people away from cities so they can’t quickly “disappear” in an urban area.
“So if you can deflect them away from a city then it’s easier to pick them up and return them,” he told the panel.
Kelly said that President Donald Trump has given him “a lot of elbow room” on finding the right suite of tools to improve security on the U.S. border with Mexico.
“The president knows I’m looking at every variation on the theme and I have no doubt when I go back to him and say, ‘Boss, wall makes sense here, fencing, high-tech fencing makes sense over here, technology makes sense over here.’ I have no doubt he will tell me to go do it,” Kelly said.
Various unofficial cost estimates for a physical barrier along the entire southern border have ranged as high as more than $60 billion but Kelly said it’s too early to provide cost estimates because the building materials are still unknown, as are other features.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) asked Kelly whether the “definition of a wall” could include an array of products, including physical barriers, unmanned systems, towers, tunnel detection technology, and electronic systems, including personnel.
“In my view the wall is all of that,” Kelly responded.
McCain said that if that’s the case then “I think most American would support it.” Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), ranking member on the committee, agreed, saying, “True.”
Kelly said that following the hearing, he expected to swear in his new deputy, Elaine Duke, who the Senate confirmed on Tuesday. Duke will be given a heavy load from the start, he said.
Some of the efforts Duke will be tasked with initially include working on a top to bottom assessment of DHS that Kelly had told the committee he wants done during his own confirmation hearing earlier this year, assessing progress in his predecessor’s Unity of Effort initiative eliminate stovepipes and unnecessary redundancies across the department, and to help with cyber security efforts.
Kelly also warned that states who are not compliant with driver’s license requirements under the 2005 Real ID Act need to address the issue immediately or begin to inform their citizens that come next January 22, they need approved identification documents to board planes in the U.S.
The Real ID law requires certain anti-fraud components to driver’s licenses. States have been granted a number of extensions over the years to comply with the law but it appears that DHS is committed to enforcing it next year. Military credentials, passports and passport cards are some of the identity documents that U.S. citizens will be allowed to use to board a plane even if their state driver’s licenses aren’t Real ID compliant.