BORDER ISSUES

President Donald Trump to tour U.S.-Mexico border during Yuma stop

Rafael Carranza
The Republic | azcentral.com
Honing in on the cost of President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful wall" is difficult, primarily because he has offered shifting estimates and conflicting details.

YUMA — For the first time since taking office, President Donald Trump will visit the U.S.-Mexico border in an area where officials say building more fence has strengthened border security.

Trump will get a first-hand look at issues that were the centerpiece of his presidential campaign: combating illegal immigration and building a "great, great wall" on the southwestern border.

He is scheduled to tour a port facility near the Yuma airport, which is located about 10 miles east of the Colorado River, which separates the U.S. from Mexico along this border city. He'll see a predator drone, Border Patrol river patrol boat, and surveillance truck. It's not known, however, if Trump will actually travel right up to the border.

Customs and Border Protection officials said the visit will allow the president to see successes and challenges to border enforcement. This section of the nearly 2,000-mile international boundary crosses varied topography — desert mountain ranges, agricultural valleys, the Colorado River, and sand dunes.

RELATED:Trump waives environmental laws to speed border wall construction

But CBP officials said Yuma is a "good example" of "securing the border through a wall."

Prior to 2006, the sector had 5.2 miles of fencing. Following the passage of the Secure Fence Act, legislation supported by both Republicans and Democrats such as then-Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the federal government invested heavily in the area, including building 62 miles of fencing.

Officials said that infrastructure, coupled with investments in staffing and technology, resulted in an 83 percent decline in Border Patrol apprehensions.

“For years, Yuma sector was besieged by chaos as a nearly unending flood of migrants and drugs poured across our border,” Elaine Duke, acting secretary of Homeland Security wrote Tuesday in an opinion piece for USA TODAY.

“Even as agents were arresting on average 800 illegal aliens a day, we were still unable to stop the thousands of trucks filled with drugs and humans that quickly crossed a vanishing point and dispersed into communities all across the country,” she added.

Trump border wall facing setbacks

Trump's brief border tour comes as his administration's efforts to build a border wall has been dealt some setbacks.

Despite campaign promises that Mexico would pay for the wall, a leaked conversation between Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto appeared to show Trump acknowledging that would not happen.

MORE:Border wall could cost $70 billion

House Republicans have appropriated $1.6 billion for the wall as part of a spending package, but that funding faces a tougher path in the Senate.

And construction of border-wall prototypes was to have begun in June but a protest to the bidding process has delayed that until at least November.

MORE:Some bidders losing faith in Trump border-wall project

Despite his focus on border security during the campaign, Trump has spent little time at or near the border. His only visit during the campaign was in the summer of 2015 in Laredo, Texas.

Supporters, protesters to greet Trump

Trump's two-hour stop in Yuma, Arizona, will precede a campaign-style rally in Phoenix Tuesday evening.

MORE:What to know and expect for Trump's rally in downtown Phoenix

There are no public events during his visit to Yuma, in the southernmost part of the state, but Trump could find a welcoming audience in Yuma County. Trump narrowly edged Hillary Clinton in this border county with a majority Latino population.

Trump supporters plan to gather at the local fairgrounds to observe the president's arrival, according to a Facebook post by a group of his supporters in Yuma County.

But he will also be greeted by residents protesting his visit.

"Our peaceful demonstration is to show our displeasure with President Trump's lack of values, his lack of leadership, his lack of humanity, and his failure to ensure equal protection and justice for everybody," said Doug Jennings, co-founder of Yuma County Indivisible, a local chapter of the progressive movement opposed to Trump's agenda.

"He has to go over the area where we’re at," Jennings said. "He might not be looking out the window, but if there’s a chance, we want to be seen."

READ MORE:

Why Gov. Doug Ducey won't attend President Donald Trump's Phoenix rally

Arizona company one step closer to designing Trump's border wall

Donald Trump's border wall faces first lawsuit

How tribal leaders and conservationists are trying to stop the Trump border wall

Arizona Republic project 'The Wall' receives $28,000 grant