Rep. Kurt Schrader Calls President Donald Trump's Border Wall "A Stupid Idea"

Trump's wall with Mexico draws criticism from Oregon.

U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader at a rally to save Obamacare on Jan. 15, 2017. (Joe Riedl)

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced plans to follow through with his campaign pledge to add to the existing wall between the U.S. and Mexico, at a cost of around $15 billion.

U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.)'s tweet this morning is pretty self-explanatory.

Schrader represents Oregon's Fifth District, which covers a wide swath of the Willamette Valley, where agricultural interests depend on immigrant labor, and the parts of the Cascades and the Coast Range, where migrant workers often replant timber lands.

Schrader, of course, is just one of many skeptics about Trump's plan. In an interview on national public Radio yesterday, Mike Vigil, the former head of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Here's an excerpt from that interview:

NPR'S Robert Shapiro: "When White House spokesman Sean Spicer today announced the start of Donald Trump's border wall expansion, he argued that it will help slow down the drug trade. Do you think that's true?"

Vigil: "No. That's complete nonsense. They can circumvent that wall using medieval technology, you know, catapults. You know, they have these aircraft that look like flying lawnmowers. They call them ultralights. They can carry maybe 300 pounds of marijuana or cocaine or methamphetamine. And then through the use of tunnels—they can easily build a very nice tunnel for a million dollars, and the first load that they run through there will pay for that tunnel."

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