The Great, Big, Beautiful, Secure, Contiguous, and Impassable Wall

President Donald Trump derived power from a 2006 law to order work on a “secure, contiguous, and impassable” barrier along the United States’s southern border Wednesday, advancing a campaign promise many critics have said is too ambitious to fulfill.

Trump cited the Secure Fence Act in his executive order, which, in its amended form, gives the Department of Homeland Security significant discretion to oversee at least 700 miles of construction using materials of its choosing. Leaning on the statute, he authorized “the immediate construction of a physical wall on the southern border.”