The Border Wall That the U.S., Not Mexico, Is Paying For

(Bloomberg) -- From the very start of his campaign for the U.S. presidency, Donald Trump has passionately promoted construction of a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Even if it’s not as vast as he once envisaged, or made of concrete as he used to describe it, or financed by Mexico as he famously promised his supporters, Trump can and does cite progress on his signature project. He’s managed to fund it in large part by circumventing Congress, where resistance helped force a record 35-day partial government shutdown in late 2018 into 2019. Funding for the project might stop if Trump is defeated in November by his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden.

1. Why a wall?

Trump, in his many public statements on immigration and border security, has said an “impenetrable” wall would “stop dangerous drugs and criminals from pouring into our country.” Trump and his aides also have talked up the notion that a wall might stop terrorists from entering the U.S. and curtail human trafficking. In July, Trump went so far as to claim that, were it not for the wall, the U.S. would be “inundated” with coronavirus.

2. How much wall exists?

When Trump took office in January 2017, barriers ranging from 18-foot-tall iron fencing to makeshift vehicle barriers and barbed wire spanned about 654 miles of the almost-2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border, mostly in California, Arizona and New Mexico. Most of the border land without any wall is in Texas along the Rio Grande River, and much of that is privately owned, meaning the federal government would need to purchase or seize it to build barriers. Land along the border cuts through cities as well as rural farmland, desert, arroyos, craggy mountains and wildlife reserves.

Existing barriers along the U.S. southwest border as of June 2019:

3. How much more did Trump promise?

In his presidential campaign, Trump called for about 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) of concrete wall where natural barriers don’t already make border crossings difficult. The Republican Party’s 2016 platform went further, stating that the wall “must cover the entirety of the southern border.” Aspirations lessened with time. A Trump administration proposal early in 2018 called for a 722-mile mix of wall and fencing, mostly updating what’s been in place for decades. Trump subsequently said he wanted 500 to 600 miles of new wall, where needed. In his State of the Union address in February, he promised “substantially more than 500 miles completed” by January 2021.

4. How much more wall has Trump gotten built?

As of Aug. 7, work had been completed on 30 miles of barriers where none had existed prior to Trump’s presidency, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Of that amount, five miles are “primary” barriers -- the first to be encountered -- while 25 miles are “secondary” barriers beyond the primary ones. Funding had been identified for another 157 miles of new wall that’s “in the pre-construction phase,” according to the agency.

5. Isn’t that less than what Trump promised?

That’s subject to interpretation. Along at least another 245 miles of border, better primary and secondary barriers have been built to replace “dilapidated and/or outdated designs,” with more in progress, according to Customs and Border Protection. Trump says such replacements should count as new wall because they involve “complete demolition and rebuilding of old and worthless barriers.” In a campaign speech in New Hampshire on Aug. 28, Trump said his administration has “already built 300 miles of border wall” and is “adding 10 new miles every single week,” and he said the wall “is almost complete.”

6. Is Mexico paying for the wall?

No. Under former President Enrique Pena Nieto and current President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrado, Mexico emphatically refused to fund it. It’s the U.S. government that has spent billions of dollars to expand the wall.

7. How much money has the wall cost?

Just over $5 billion in funding through Customs and Border Protection, plus almost $10 billion in Defense Department funding that Trump ordered be diverted to the wall.

8. Would Biden keep building the wall?

Biden says he would cease expanding the wall but not tear down what has been added under Trump.

9. What does the wall accomplish?

They’re meant to delay or redirect “those attempting to cross between ports of entry, to increase the likelihood they can be detected, intercepted, and detained,” the Congressional Research Service says. Some experts doubt that a wall does much to reduce illegal drugs pouring into the country because they come mostly through established ports of entry. As for criminals and terrorists, a State Department report issued in September 2018 found no credible evidence of international terrorists using Mexico as a base to send operatives into the U.S. The report said that while the southern border remains a U.S. vulnerability, “terrorist groups likely seek other means of trying to enter.”

The Reference Shelf

• The border wall in maps, charts and photos.
• The Washington Post’s interactive look at the U.S.-Mexico border.
• Customs and Border Protection’s online guide to wall construction.
• The Congressional Research Service report.
• Trump’s former strategist faces criminal charges over a campaign to raise private donations to build parts of the wall.

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