Udall, Heinrich Push Back Against Trump Administration Plan to Construct New Border Wall South of Deming, New Mexico

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich released the following statement in response to U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan holding a press conference at the border in El Paso, TX: 

“The Trump administration’s decision to visit the border today is part of its campaign to deceive the American people that there is a national security crisis at the El Paso and New Mexico border. To be clear, the only crisis is a humanitarian one of the administration’s own creation – caused by its reckless policy of not allowing asylum-seekers to present themselves at official border crossings and cruelly separating parents from their children. Now, the Trump administration is proposing the construction of 46 miles of Trump’s border wall south of Deming, New Mexico, one of the quietest spots on the US-Mexico border where the majority of those arriving are seeking asylum. This is a wasteful, ineffective, offensive wall and money should not be raided – at the expense of our military readiness and the needs of military families – to fund it."