With just over a week left in his term, President Trump is expected to celebrate progress on one of his campaign promises: a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
According to a senior government official, Trump will be in Alamo, Texas, on Tuesday, after the White House marked about 450 miles of the barrier being completed.
WHEN THE TRUMP BORDER WALL REACHES THE 450 MILE TARGET, CBP’S CHIEF SAYS MORE WALL IS COMING
“President Trump is expected to travel to Alamo, Texas on Tuesday to mark the completion of more than 400 miles from the border wall – a promise made, a promise kept – and his government’s efforts to reform our system of broken immigration, “said the official.
The visit is scheduled to take place in the same week that the US House of Representatives heads for an impeachment vote after Wednesday’s US Capitol rebellion.
In 2019, Trump had promised to have 450 wall miles completed by the end of 2020. In January 2020, only 100 miles were completed.
In February 2016, Trump told MSNBC that a wall along 1,600 kilometers of the border was needed that still had no natural barriers. After four years, the government claims to have made progress to achieve most of this. Customs and Border Patrol commissioner Mark Morgan told reporters last week that $ 1.375 billion that was included in the recent spending bill passed by Congress and signed by President Trump out of a total of about $ 16 billion in funding is sufficient to complete 800 miles.
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“So in addition to the 450 we already have on the ground, we have 350 miles of wall system funded to go to the ground,” said Morgan. “The overwhelming amount of these miles, this financing, the contracts have already been won”.
The future of border construction, however, is unclear. President-elect Joe Biden opposed the building of walls and promised that “there will be no other wall built in my administration”.
However, it may not be that simple. Morgan warned that, with these contracts already signed, it would cost the US “billions” to suddenly abandon them and could cost thousands of jobs.
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Other estimates challenged Morgan’s claim. The Washington Post reported that it could actually save money – approximately $ 2.6 billion – according to estimates by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Speaking to reporters, Morgan did not approach the report directly, but widely acknowledged that there was some “manipulation”, suggesting that it would not be expensive to cancel the contract.
David Spunt and Adam Shaw of Fox News contributed to this report.