SAN ANTONIO – Securing our border and building a wall may have been what jump-started President Trump's journey to the White House, but the proposed wall is expected to cost billions and not everyone is in favor.
With Mexico refusing to pay for the border wall as promised by then candidate Trump, the idea he had of imposing a 20 percent tariff on Mexico imports was quickly met with bipartisan pushback.
"I've been very clear since probably 2009 that building a wall from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico is the most expensive and the least effective way to do border security," District 28th Rep. Will Hurd said.
Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Blue Dog, fiscally conservative Democrat, fears the expense may end up falling on the shoulders of the American people.
"Mexico is not going to pay for our wall. It's just not going to happen. It's a Trump fantasy. It really is,” Cuellar said. “It's a campaign promise that (Trump) made and he doesn't know how to get out of it.”
Of the proposal Cuellar said, “It’s misleading. I assume that he know he’s misleading the American public on this.”
He said actually it could be a global tariff on all imports as originally proposed by Texas Rep. Kevin Brady.
Despite their party affiliations, both Cuellar and Hurd agree. The money would be better spent somewhere else.
"We should be giving more of it to the NSA and CIA to collect information on the drug trafficking organizations and the kingpin human smugglers that are operating in Mexico," Hurd said.
Cuellar said U.S. companies wouldn’t absorb the cost.
“Who is going to pay for this? The consumer and not anybody else,” Cuellar said.
Cuellar said in a sense, it would be a tax increase for American businesses, such as Toyota and HEB, that rely on Mexican imports sold to U.S. consumers.
Hurd said it would be the result of starting a trade war with America’s No. 1 trading partner.
Cuellar said many would be hurt by what he calls “Trump’s obsession with Mexico.”
Hurd and Cuellar said Texas would be impacted most. Laredo is the nation’s largest inland port with thousands of trucks crossing to and from Mexico daily with parts assembled in the U.S. and Mexico, and products sold throughout the U.S.
“The likelihood that a House and Senate would approve something like that is very unlikely,” Hurd said.
Hurd said the president cannot levy a tariff without Congress.
“At the end of the day, I think the American public needs to make sure Congress does its job and will have the final say so,” Cuellar said.
The congressmen also worry about losing Mexico as one of our biggest allies.
“I want to remind people that Mexico has a visa system that is very good for the United States. They don't let people from Iran, Iraq, Syria, North Korea and other places come into Mexico because of the U.S.," Cuellar said.
In the end, both will wait to see Trump's final proposal, knowing that at some point it will come across their desk.