Donald Trump signs ‘world-class’ border wall as he thanks Mexican leader for help

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Donald Trump signed his name on a new section of the US-Mexico border wall, calling it “world-class”.

He said the wall in San Diego’s Otay Mesa absorbs heat and “you can fry an egg” on it, adding: “When the wall is built, it will be virtually impossible to come over illegally.”

He stood with construction workers and top security officials and praised details of its construction, calling the concrete-steel bollards that allow agents to see through to Mexico, "the Rolls-Royce version".

He also thanked Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for sending troops to the borders to slow the migrant flow.

“Mexico has never impeded people from pouring into our country and now they’re [being] incredible,” he said.

Mr Trump toured a section of the wall in San Diego's Otay Mesa area on Wednesday.
AP

Mark Morgan, acting commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection, dismissed critics who call it the "president's vanity wall".

"I'm here to tell you that's false," he said, telling reporters that Mr Trump reached out to border experts to find out what they needed.

Mr Trump highlighted features of the wall, which he said have been studied by three other countries, adding that the wall absorbs heat so that an egg can be fried on its surface.

He heaped praise on the Mexican government, especially for sending tens of thousands of troops to its northern and southern borders to help slow the flow of migrants headed towards the United States.

He said President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador "has been great"
Reuters

He said President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador "has been great".

"We're all thrilled," Mr Trump said. "You know Mexico has never done anything to impede people from pouring into our country and now they're doing just the opposite. They've really been incredible."

It was a return trip for the president, who travelled there in March 2018 to see border wall prototypes.

Authorities later destroyed the temporary structures to make way for 14 miles of steel, concrete-filled bollards currently under construction.

Mr Trump is riding a string of wins on the wall and on immigration in general
Reuters

Before construction began, the border in San Diego was protected by one layer of sheet metal that was easily blow-torched and a second layer that could be compromised with powerful, battery-operated saws.

"It was like a sheet metal and people would just knock it over like just routinely," Mr Trump said.

When Mr Trump asked Army Corps Lt Gen Todd Semonite to explain how technology embedded in the wall alerts agents to illegal activity, he was told: "Sir, there could be some merit in not discussing it."

Mr Semonite offered new details on the pace of construction that highlighted how quickly the administration plans to move.

At least 66 miles has been build so far, with 251 miles in various stages of construction at 17 sites and contracts for 163 miles planned in the next 90 days, the general said.

Arrests on the Mexican border plunged in August, well beyond the usual summer dip, from a 13-year high reached in May, although the figures are still relatively high, topping 50,000 in 10 of the last 11 months, compared with only eight months over the previous decade.

Last week, the Supreme Court gave Mr Trump a green light to deny asylum to anyone who passes through another country on the way to the US border with Mexico without having first sought protection in the third country.

The Pentagon recently diverted $3.6 billion from 127 military construction projects to build 175 miles of barriers on the border.

Mr Trump had promised during the 2016 presidential campaign that Mexico would pay for the wall.

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