BLUF: The Trump administration is building new wall and doing so faster than ever before. Currently wall construction continues at the southwest border (SWB) with the administration’s goal of 450 new miles of wall system on track for the end of the calendar year.
As summed up below by Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott, the current status of the wall system’s construction is summed up as follows:
- 341 new miles completed
- 240 new miles under construction
- 157 new miles under the pre-construction process
Furthermore, as Acting Secretary Chad Wolf illustrated in his recent State of the Homeland Address, the timeline has been accelerating since construction began:
“In January, we reached 100 miles of new border wall system. In June, we achieved 200 miles. In August, we marked the 300th mile—and by the end of this calendar year we will reach over 450 miles of new border wall system.”
Now construction is moving at a rate of approximately 10 miles per week, setting the administration up to complete its year-end goal with time to spare.
This 450-mile section of constructed wall is significant as it will mark the end of DHS’s first round of efforts to secure the SWB with physical borders. These are some of the highest-trafficking and therefore most critical sectors of the southern border for illegal crossings and apprehensions.
These numbers point to the department’s unrelenting efforts to secure the American people and restore integrity to America’s broken immigration system despite widespread, transparently political obstruction in both Congress and the courts over the course of the administration.
Finally, as hundreds of new miles of border wall system have been constructed, they have pushed cartels to traffic their poisonous products precisely where DHS is best equipped— our Ports of Entry. The drugs we are seizing as a result of this new wall that never enter and devastate our communities, and never line the pockets of cartels.
The Wall’s Effectiveness
This new wall system is unlike anything we’ve had before:
- It provides critical new capabilities to the men and women of the Border Patrol to protect the homeland.
- Together, this system represents CBP’s multi-layered approach to border security: deploying the right mix of personnel, technology, and infrastructure to meet the challenges of a dynamic border threat environment and ultimately achieve operational control of the border.
- The physical barrier acts as a “force multiplier,” allowing for fewer agents to be able to patrol more border.
- Any Border Patrol Agent will tell you that the new wall system improves the community they live in and simultaneously enables them to do their jobs far more efficiently.
This wall is a testament to a key promise made—and kept—by President Trump and this Administration.
- Put simply, the American people need and deserve a secure border, and they’re getting one from this administration.
- The reality of America’s situation is that every town, city and state is a border town city and state; this wall protects all of them at once.
- These hundreds of miles of wall system are helping to improve the integrity of our immigration system, protect Americans from crimes committed by illegal aliens, stem the flow of deadly hard narcotics into our communities, and rebuild a competitive economy that serves the American worker.
Recent Enforcement Success Stories
https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1309911342216867846
https://twitter.com/DHS_Wolf/status/1310680579357147138
https://twitter.com/HomelandKen/status/1309651049943310336
https://twitter.com/CBPMarkMorgan/status/1309596329715396608
https://twitter.com/CBPMarkMorgan/status/1310016815792295936