Sarah Sanders Mocked For Suggesting That Border Wall Could Have Stopped ‘El Chapo’
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders celebrated the conviction of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman on 10 federal counts, but her tweet invited scorn from a number of Twitter users.
Sanders, whose job is to defend the president’s policies in front of the media, insinuated that Guzman’s conviction was tied to Donald Trump’s campaign promise of building a wall on the southern border.
“El Chapo’s reign of terror is over. He’ll spend the rest of his life in a maximum security prison. The threat from violent drug cartels is real – we must secure our border,” she tweeted.
According to the Independent, Sanders’ tweet was mocked by users who accused the press secretary of trying to tie the drug lord’s conviction with Trump’s demand for a border wall. It was a claim without any evidence to back it up, observers argued. Some users even remarked that Guzman is known to have escaped maximum-security prisons in Mexico using underground tunnels and as a result, no border wall would be able to keep people like him from plying their trade in the United States.
Yet others tweeted that most of the drugs that Guzman’s cartel, Sinaloa, pushed into the United States were actually flown into the country and were not carried by “mules” crossing the border. Others noted that Guzman’s conviction had nothing to do with securing the border and that it was actually a result of great cooperation between Mexican and U.S. authorities.
El Chapo, the notorious drug kingpin, has been found guilty in his U.S. trial https://t.co/9oNTNNzZrS
— TIME (@TIME) February 13, 2019
Sanders is not the only Trump aide who tried to suggest that a border wall will stop people like “El Chapo” from conducting their trade. As reported by the Inquisitr earlier today, Texas Senator Ted Cruz once again tried to push the “EL CHAPO Act” or “Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to Provide Order Act.” He had reintroduced the legislation in January of this year, which would require Guzman’s seized assets to be used for funding the border wall. But experts have noted that this is nearly impossible, as most of Guzman’s assets are in Mexico.
Donald Trump’s push for a border wall has met a number of setbacks. The longest shutdown in U.S. history was brought to an end after lawmakers negotiated a deal that would provide nearly $1.4 billion for border barriers, but Trump has indicated that he is not happy with the deal. Only 55 miles would be constructed with this budget, which is far less than Trump’s demand of having 225 miles of border fencing built using existing designs, such as metal slats.
