House Republicans are looking to meet President Donald Trump's request of $5 billion for his border wall, but the Senate so far has only included $1.6 billion in their spending bill.
The president has even threatened to shut down the government if the two sides don't come together, but Alex Nowrasteh at the Cato Institute doesn’t think any of it is going to happen.
“They're basically to show supporters that they're doing something, but it's really not enough to do much of anything except get a few headlines,” says Nowrasteh.
“It turns out Mexico is not going to going to pay for it. Congress isn't going to pay for it and the wall is not going to get built,” he says. “I think it's trying to salvage political rhetoric going into a tough election year, but they're not serious about spending money on it, so it's not going to be successful.”
And Nowrasteh says the wall is still a tough sell with land owners along the Texas border.
“They're going to have to take an enormous amount of private property from ranchers along the border through eminent domain,” he says. “So I guess you have to ask yourself what do you dislike more? Do you dislike illegal immigrants crossing the border, or do you dislike eminent domain?
Current funding bills are set to expire Sept. 30, just ahead of the November midterm elections.