Donald Trump signs orders to start border wall with Mexico and ramp up immigration enforcement

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump has signed two executive orders to crack down on illegal immigration and to build a wall on the Mexican border.

"Beginning today the United States of America gets back control of its borders, gets back its borders. I just signed two executive orders that will save thousands of lives, millions of jobs and billions and billions of dollars," he told officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The measures include beefing up border security by hiring an additional 5,000 border patrol officers. They also start the process of identifying federal funding to so-called "sanctuary cities" - which limit cooperation with federal immigration officials in searching for and detaining undocumented migrants - and slashing it.

The executive orders on immigration seek to use leverage to force other countries to take back criminals, expand border security personnel numbers, and give Immigration and Customs Enforcement more power to arrest, detain and deport certain categories of immigrants.

Left untouched thus far is former president Barack Obama's 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA programme, which offered undocumented young people extended protection from deportation and allowed them to work in the US.

US President Donald Trump has vowed to build a wall at the country's southern border with Mexico. Here is a look at the key facets of the proposal.

Mr Trump has railed against the impact of uncontrolled immigration into the United States, infamously alleging in one of his speeches on the campaign trail that immigrants from Mexico were rapists and involved in drug trafficking and other crimes. He believes that building the wall will prevent immigrants from entering the country.

Mr Trump said in February last year that the wall will have to be only 1,609km long because of natural barriers like mountains. This would be about half the length of the US border with Mexico. He has said it will be 10.6m to 12.2m high. It has been estimated that building the wall would require about 9.6 million cubic m of concrete, said the BBC.

The cost estimates floated by Mr Trump for building the wall have varied: He has suggested in different interviews that it would cost US$8 billion (S$11.3 billion), US$10 billion and US$12 billion. But The Washington Post has estimated that the costwould be closer to US$25 billion.

Mr Trump's campaign website says Mexico will pay for the wall. The site also lists a few ways to make Mexico pay for it, including cancelling visas, adding visa fees and enforcing trade tariffs. With Mexico consistently stating that it will not pay for the border wall, Mr Trump is likely to seek alternative ways to extract the required funds.

Mr Trump signed the orders at the DHS soon after the agency's new chief, retired Marine-General John Kelly, was sworn in.

"The Secretary of Homeland Security, working with myself and my staff, will begin immediate construction of a border wall" he said. "This will also help Mexico by deterring illegal immigration from central America and by disrupting violent cartel networks."

"We are going to get the bad ones out, the criminals, the gang members, the cartel members. We're going to get them out fast," he added.

Under the orders, "sanctuary cities" like Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Denver could lose billions of dollars. New York could lose close to US$10.4 billion (S$14.7 billion), and Santa Fe, New Mexico US$6 million in federal funding, CNN reported. But the effect of this will vary; some sanctuary cities may say they do not need the money.

At the daily White House press briefing on Wednesday (Jan 25), just prior to the President's visit to the DHS, press secretary Sean Spicer told journalists: "The President understands the magnitude, the significance. He's a family man. It (the crackdown on immigrants) will be done in a humane way."

The wall was one of President Trump's key campaign pledges. Construction on the wall will begin "in months" Mr Trump said, in an interview with ABC news which aired on Wednesday morning.

At the White House press briefing, Mr Spicer told journalists, "One way or another, Mexico will pay for it."

"The President is working with Congress and other folks to figure out opportunities for Mexico to pay for the wall."

Estimates of the cost of building a wall or barrier on the over 3,000km border vary, but are generally reported to be up to or around US$15 billion.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto is scheduled to meet with Mr Trump on Tuesday, Jan 31. Mr Trump also wants to renegotiate the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (Nafta), which clubs together the US, Canada and Mexico.

On Jan 23, Mr Nieto was quoted as saying in a speech on foreign policy, that he favoured dialogue and negotiation, not "confrontation nor submission" with the US on trade.

"It's clear that the US has a new vision for its foreign policy" he said. "Mexico has to act to defend its national interests."

On Tuesday, Mexico's secretary of the economy Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal reportedly told the Televisa TV network when asked about Mexico's position on the wall: "We can't prevent them from building the wall on their side of the border, but if they want to make us pay for the wall or if they try to stop remittances, Mexico will leave the table."