Ted Cruz suggested POTUSDJT allocate money recovered from drug stings to build the wall. I’m not sure that’s feasible, but it should be. Maybe someone could comment on this?
“Ted Cruz suggested POTUSDJT allocate money recovered from drug stings to build the wall.”
My understanding is that it would still require Congressional approval.
There is the big case of “El Chapo” (Shorty) Guzman, currently in Federal Court in Brooklyn, NY. The potential asset forfeiture in that single case could be around $13 billion - enough for 1,000 miles of top of the line barrier, and a nice technology bump. One elegant feature - a Mexican would be paying for it.
Asset forfeiture funds from drug cartels could be used to get around internal budgeting rules within the Legislature, by not having to cut something else, or having to raise taxes - but Congress still has to authorize the spending.
New tariffs are also going to bring in a lot of new revenue next year (~tens of billions), outside of what is planned in the 10 year budget. That revenue could also potentially be used by Congress to “pay for” an unbudgeted appropriation for border barrier.
Attempts to crowdsource or GoFundMe border wall construction have been tried before, and raised only negligible amounts of money. Asset forfeiture and tariffs are big enough pots of money to be real options.