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How Many Miles Of Trump’s Wall Have Been Built

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How Much Of The Wall Has Been Built

VERIFY: Did Trump build 400 miles of border wall?

So, just how much of the president’s long-promised border wall has been built? According to data provided by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, not a whole lot.

“Since January 2017, the Department of Homeland Security and have received funding to support construction of up to 201-205 miles of new border barriers,” CBP said in a “border wall status” update dated on June 14.

Of those 201-205 miles the Trump administration has received funding for through a combination of appropriations and the Treasury Forfeiture Fund , however, only 46.7 miles have been built two-and-a-half years into Trump’s presidency. Much of the border wall that has been built has been put up in places where construction is replacing “dilapidated designs.”

While, during his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump had vowed to build a towering 2,000-mile wall that would stop migrants in their tracks before they considered attempting to cross into the U.S. outside a designated port of entry, the U.S. leader scaled back on that promise in January of this year, admitting that his border wall would not, in fact, be the “a 2,000-mile concrete structure from sea-to-sea” that he promised to build. “These are steel barriers in high-priority locations,” he said.


The graphic below, provided by Statista, illustrates that border apprehensions are hitting historic highs.

A Key Migrant Camp Is Emptying

Thousands who have made the journey to the southern US border have found refuge in temporary border communities – often in shanty towns with little infrastructure or resources and vulnerable to pressure from violent organised-crime gangs.

According to Human Rights Watch, these migrants are under threat from criminal organisations which kidnap them on the assumption that they have relatives in the US who could be extorted for money.

In the town of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, hundreds of people set up one such camp in 2018 near the entry point, in the scrubland on the banks of the Rio Grande.

Charities such as the World Food Kitchen, the Dignity Village collective and Global Response Management provide food, tents, clothing and medical care to those living in the camp, where around 50% of residents are under the age of 15.


But Andrea Leiner, director of strategic planning for GRM, says coronavirus and July’s Hurricane Hanna have had dire consequences.

Coronavirus restrictions have meant the border has been closed for all but essential travel and immigration hearings have been postponed.

Hurricane Hanna not only brought floods to the camp but also caused an infestation of rats, snakes and mosquitoes, forcing many residents to flee.

Ms Leiner says the repeated blows of plague, famine, and hurricane, on top of the legal restrictions, have drained people of hope.

How Much Is New

Various types of fencing totalling 654 miles were already in place before Mr Trump became president in 2017.


These ran through the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

The Trump administration say they’ve completed more than 400 miles of border wall since then.

It’s 452 miles in total, according to the latest US Customs and Border Protection information .

However, only 80 miles of new barriers have been built where there were none before – that includes 47 miles of primary wall, and 33 miles of secondary wall built to reinforce the initial barrier.

The vast majority of the 452 miles is replacing existing structures at the border that had been built by previous US administrations.


President Trump has argued that this should be regarded as new wall, because it’s replacing what he called “old and worthless barriers.”

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Appropriated Border Wall Funds

Furthermore, Bush makes a dubious claim that wall construction was funded by duly appropriated dollars during the Trump days.

The Trump administration initially requested $13.3 billion through 2020 for wall construction, but Congress provided $4.47 billion through Department of Homeland Security appropriations, according to the Congressional Research Service. Of that total, about $1 billion was directed to barrier replacement projects, $1.4 billion was directed to planning and $2 billion was directed to construction needs in the Rio Grande Valley sector.

Funds appropriated by Congress for wall construction are legally obligated to be used consistent with their appropriated purpose, no matter the administration in office.


The only other money appropriated to border wall construction was part of a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill passed by Congress in 2020. That bill included $900 billion for COVID-19 relief and nearly $1.4 billion for wall funding. Biden has since paused the flow of those funds to border wall construction projects.

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Since January 2017, ~$15 billion has been identified to construct ~738 miles of new border wall system through a combination of Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense funding and the Treasury Forfeiture Fund , the memo reads. Funding received supports planning, design, real estate, environmental, construction and oversight activities.

Most Of The Wall Isn’t ‘wall’ At All

Trumps border wall: How many miles have been built?

As well as scaling back his ambitions for the length of the border barrier, Mr Trump has also changed his view of what constitutes a wall.

Throughout his 2016 election campaign, when he described it, he talked about concrete.


But once elected, he began referring to a barrier made of steel, which would enable border agents to see through it.

And what has been built so far is mostly such steel fencing.

Specifically, much of the current wave of construction is 18-30ft reinforced bollard fencing, according to a report by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service.

“It poses a formidable barrier, but it is not the high, thick masonry structure that most dictionaries term a ‘wall’,” the report states.

However, the report adds that while the new barriers may not be made of concrete and in many cases replace existing structures, they do pose “a new obstacle that changes the calculus of those attempting to cross the border between ports of entry”.


Having said that, although Mr Trump’s barriers are not themselves made of concrete, they have been constructed using a significant amount of it, according to CBP.

Some 774,000 cubic yards of concrete have been used in construction so far, alongside 539,000 tonnes of steel.

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Years Later Only 3 New Miles Of ‘wall’ And Not A Single Peso From Mexico

WASHINGTON Four years after promising a 2,000-mile Great Wall made of reinforced concrete and paid for by Mexico, President Donald Trump took a victory lap for securing three new miles of steel fence that was paid for by raiding the military budget.

This is the most powerful and comprehensive border wall structure anywhere in the world, Trump said Tuesday during a visit to the Mexican border at Yuma, Arizona, where he said 212 miles have been built and that close to 500 would be finished by the end of the year. Our border has never been more secure.


In fact, only three of those 212 miles are along parts of the border that previously had no barrier. The rest have replaced existing fencing, a process that began under President George W. Bush and continued under President Barack Obama.

And that fencing, between 18 and 30 feet tall, has proven vulnerable to smugglers and human traffickers using portable, battery-powered saws.

As Ted Cruz said, Donald Trump is a pathological liar, said Republican consultant Stuart Stevens, referring to the Texas GOP senators lengthy critique of Trumps mental health at the end of the 2016 Republican presidential primaries.

Trump promised from the day he began his campaign in June 2015 that he would build a great wall to end illegal immigration from Mexico.

Trump on Tuesday blamed Democrats for doing everything they could to block us and claimed they supported open borders.


Bidens Plan For The Future Of The Wall

Biden has promised to undo most, if not all, of Trumps immigration policies, many in the first 100 days of office, including a complete halt on border wall construction. Bidens plan for his first 100 days in office include putting an end to Trumps February 2019 National Emergency declaration that diverted billions of dollars from other federal programs to build the wall. For example, in FY2019, the U.S. Department of Defense identified $2.5 billion from a counter narcotics program to fund wall construction, according to CBP. The following fiscal year, it identified an additional $3.8 billion from the same counter narcotics program. In FY2019, the Department of Defense also identified $3.6 billion from military construction to go towards the wall.

Building a wall from sea-to-shining-sea is not a serious policy solutionits a waste of money, and it diverts critical resources away from the real threats, the Biden Campaign website reads. A spokesperson for the Biden transition team did not immediately return TIMEs request for comment.

Most of the wall construction took place in 2019, according to Bolter. At this time a year ago in January of 2020, 100 miles of border wall had been completed in three years of the Trump Administration, she says. So were looking at 350 miles completed since then.

Instead, Biden plans to focus on investing in border technology to increase the effectiveness of screening at ports of entry, and increase partnerships with Canada and Mexico.

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Donald Trump’s Border Wall: How Much Of The Barrier Has Actually Been Builtand Will It Ever Be Complete

For much of his life, President Donald Trump, a real estate-tycoon-turned world leader, has been a builder. With towers going up around the world in his name, it could be argued that success, for the U.S. leader, is a tangible thing only made real once it’s written across the skyline.

So, it should have come as little surprise when, in 2014, Trump, then referred to as a “real estate tycoon” and “Celebrity Apprentice” star in the headlines, first hinted at what one of his first priorities would be if he were to be elected president.

Back then, it was a “fence””a border fence like you have never seen before,” the real estate magnate told an audience in New Hampshire in April 2014. That summer, the “fence” would become a “wall” as Trump’s advisers considered how to best brand a 2016 campaign that could be run on the promise of cracking down on immigration and putting “America first.”

“And what better way than to have his brand incorporated by Donald Trump saying, ‘Yeah, I’m going to build a wall. Nobody builds like Trump’?” former Trump adviser Sam Nunberg once told NPR.

Fast forward five years later and one of the biggest election upsets in U.S. history, and Trump, now president, is seeing his border wall ambitions become a reality one “beautiful” steel slat at a time, as the U.S. leader has put it, despite an uphill battle in Congress to see his vision brought to fruition.

False Climate Change Claim

Trump administration reaches 100-mile mark for border wall

Trump downplayed the threat of climate change when he attempted to argue that people, presumably Democrats, were ignoring the risk of nuclear weapons to focus solely on climate change.

The Green New Deal and the environment, which they say may affect us in 300 years is all that is talked about, yet nuclear weapons which would destroy the world immediately are never even discussed as a major threat, he said. They say the ocean will rise one-eighth of an inch over the next 200 to 300 years.

Projections for future sea level rise are well above that figure, which Trump has previously used. Rather than increasing one-eighth of an inch over centuries, global sea level is already rising that much per year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Roads, bridges, subways, water supplies, oil and gas wells, power plants, sewage treatment plants, landfillsvirtually all human infrastructureis at risk from sea level rise, NOAA says on its website.

Thats the global average, the agency says, so sea level rise may be higher or lower in specific places and for much of the U.S., its projected to beworse.

In the next 30 years alone, sea level along the U.S. coast is projected to rise 10 to 12 inches, according to the U.S. governments 2022 Sea Level Rise Technical Report.

By 2100, scientists project between nearly 2 feet to more than 7 feet of sea level rise and between 2.6 feet and 12.8 feet by 2150 in the U.S. relative to the level in 2000.

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Promise: The Wall Will Be ‘big Beautiful’ And ‘concrete’ Status: Not Exactly

Trump spent a lot of time as a candidate talking about how his big, beautiful border wall would look. He often said it would be made out of concrete he said it would be 35 or 40 or 55 or 80 feet tall, depending on the rally.

The politicians would come up to me, and theyd say, You know, Donald, you cant build the wall. I said, You have to be kidding. You have to be kidding. Concrete plank, you have to be kidding. Precast, precast, right? Boom. Bing. Done. Keep going, he said in August 2016.

As president, he spent millions on border wall prototypes some concrete, some steel to test new border wall structures all eight were vulnerable to breaching and have since been torn down.

The Trump administration has continued to use steel bollard fencing designs for border barriers, just like the Obama administration.

The Facts On Donald Trumps Claim Of 182 Miles Of Border Wall Construction

If Your Time is short

  • What the administration has mostly done is replace old and outdated designs with new and improved barriers.

  • Of 187 miles, 172 miles have a border barrier that replaced dilapidated or outdated designs. The other 15 miles have a barrier for the first time.

  • Before Trump became president, 654 miles had primary barriers. During Trumps presidency, that has increased by 3 miles, to 657 miles of primary barriers.

The United States, Mexico and Canada in late March agreed to restrict non-essential travel across their borders to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. President Donald Trump on May 19 was asked whether hed extend the travel restriction with Canada.

Trump responded by saying the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade was recently signed, and pivoted to his signature promise of a border wall with Mexico.

“On the Southern border, as you know, the wall is going up, its going up very rapidly. Were at 182 miles,” Trump said during an event about coronavirus aid for farmers and ranchers.

Trump added: “pretty early next year, well have 450 to 500 miles of wall fully built.”

The barriers going up are harder to get through than previous structures. But they are not the “impenetrable” wall Trump promised during his campaign.

The White House press office did not respond to our queries for information. But we did get some details from the agency that oversees border security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

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Promise: The Wall Would Cost $8

Perhaps Trumps most consistent promise about the border wall was that Mexico would pay for it.

“I will have Mexico pay for that wall, mark my words,” Trump said at his presidential announcement speech, one of hundreds of times he made that promise.

He said during his 2016 campaign that it would cost $8 billion, or perhaps $12 billion, for his 1,000-mile wall. In fact, the federal government has allocated $15 billion for the 453 mile project, according to Time Magazine.

Mexico did not pay for the wall its leaders have refused since Trump first made his promise. After Trump’s inauguration, the president began suggesting that the U.S. would initially pay, but that Mexico would reimburse the U.S. for the wall.

That has also not happened. Taxpayers foot the bill for Trump’s wall.

The Border Wall Is Outliving Trump

Joe Biden to Issue Executive Order Ending Border Wall Construction ...
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Myles Traphagen kept his eye on the horizon as he maneuvered his pickup truck down a treacherous sand road in Cabeza Prieta, Arizonas largest wilderness area. Bordered by Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument to the east, Cabeza Prieta sits on the states southwestern edge. The preserve, which was founded in 1939, is known for its beauty and its desert wildlife, which includes Western diamondback rattlesnakes, Sonoran pronghorn, and lesser long-nosed bats. It is, according to the National Park Service, the loneliest international boundary on the continent. Looming mountains, some made of lava, others of granite, cleave the rugged land. They give Cabeza Prieta its nameSpanish for dark heads.

American Scar, a documentary short by the New Yorker filmmaker Daniel Lombroso, explores some of the border walls unintended consequences.

Asked for comment, a White House official said, On his first day in office, President Biden paused construction of a wall along the Southern border, and every day since we have been working to clean up the mess the prior Administration left behind, including by returning, where possible, the land it seized, returning the money it took from our military, and working closely with border communities, stakeholders, and Tribal communities to address urgent life, safety, and environmental issues.

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Cresting A Small Hill On His 250

Cresting a small hill on his 250-acre ranch along the U.S.-Mexico border, 78-year-old Bob Maupin of Boulevard is silhouetted with his AR-10, or ArmaLite Rifle. This photo is from Aug. 30, 2017. Brandon Quester/inewsource

The Vigilante

But when his backyard and that of his neighbors became human-trafficking routes, Maupin said, he began patrolling his property with an AR-10 rifle to help Border Patrol agents round up the migrants.

And with the eastward shift of illegal entries, hundreds of migrants started dying in the desert. From 1998 to 2016, theBorder Patrol reported 3,973 deaths in California and Arizona, or more than half of the total known deaths along the U.S-Mexico border.

Those figures dont include the bodies that are never found. The people often die fromexposure to extreme temperatures.

Recognizing the problem, the Border Patrol in 1998 launched BORSTAR, a specialized unit to respond to emergency calls at the border.

Then, in the post 9/11 years, amid a renewed focus on national security under President Bush, the U.S.-Mexico border landscape saw a still-more dramatic transformation. In 2006, the Secure Fence Act called for hundreds of miles of additional fencing. As the wall got longer, more illegal crossings occurred in the desert.

The Rescuer

Ely Ortiz founded Aguilas Del Desierto after his brother died in the desert while trying to enter the U.S. illegally.

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