Money for the southern border wall has been transferred today...$1B. That should get things moving. In my pursuit of understanding the relationship between China and the US, I'm reading a fascinating book right now, The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom by John Pomfret. Here's a snippet of information I read about the southern border. In 1882 Arthur, the President signed the Chinese Exclusion Act barring skilled and unskilled laborers from entering the country for ten years. Well. Guess what? Because of this Act the Chinese (desperate for a better life) landed in Mexico and began crossing the border in droves. Lawmakers called for a "Chinese Wall" to keep the interlopers out. The vast federal bureaucracy designed to limit immigration to America was originally created not in response to Mexicans, but to the Chinese. [goodreads.com]