DHS chief: Border wall unlikely to stretch from ‘sea to shining sea’

by Nikita Vladimirov - 04/05/17 11:05 AM ET

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John Kelly said on Wednesday that President Trump’s signature wall on the border with Mexico is unlikely to stretch from “sea to shining sea.”

“It’s unlikely that we will build wall or a physical barrier from sea to shining sea,” Kelly said during testimony to the Senate Homeland Security Committee, the Dallas News reported.

Kelly said that many Customs and Border Protection officers have pointed to specific zones that need improvement and that the wall will not be built “where it doesn’t make sense.”

{mosads}”We’re not going to build a wall where it doesn’t make sense, but we’re going to do something across the southwest border,” Kelly said.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) blasted the Trump administration during the hearing, saying that every lawmaker knows that building a wall that stretches the length of the border is “not going to happen.”

“The sooner we stop this, you know, ‘We’re going to build a wall from sea to shining sea and the Mexicans are going to pay for it.’ It’s embarrassing. It’s not going to happen,” she said. “Everybody in Congress knows it’s not going to happen. Every Republican knows it, every Democrat knows it. It appears the only person who won’t say it out loud is the president of the United States.”

Rafael Bernal contributed.

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