Department of Homeland Security officials need to run a pilot program that will test the efficacy of a wall on the southwestern border of the United States, according to President Trump’s nominee to run DHS operations.
“I think that we should test things before we deploy them and we have to test not only are they effective in securing the border, but are they sustainable,” DHS deputy secretary nominee Elaine Duke told Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., during her Homeland Security and Government Affairs confirmation hearing.
She made that comment in defense of spending $20 million in a border wall pilot program. Duke faced repeated questions from skeptical Democrats, who argued that Trump’s proposed wall will take money that would be better spent on other, more effective border security methods. “Don’t you think it would be wise to at least determine what the best avenue is?” Tester said. “Doesn’t that make more sense than to say ‘well we’re just going to focus on a wall and after we get that done, maybe we’ll spend another $30 billion on something else,’ because it didn’t quite do the job that we anticipated?”
Duke, a former DHS undersecretary for management under George W. Bush, defended the pilot program but left the door open to the idea that a wall might not be the most efficient border security plan.
“We should use the results of this pilot and the other information that [Customs and Border Patrol] has in their program about technology cost and effectiveness, infrastructure cost and effectiveness, personnel, and take all that and determine what is the right and take all that and determine what is the right combination for the complete security of the southwest border,” Duke replied.
