The US-Mexico border wall is not being built at a rapid pace. In fact, barely any new sections of the wall were built at all, despite what Trump promised.
Since the start of his term as president, Donald Trump sought to transfer funds from different agencies to further his political aspirations, much of which involved his promise to build a wall along the southern US-Mexico border. Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump could use defense funding to support the wall, despite many efforts by different groups to derail the wall’s construction.
He also placed the US in a state of National Emergency to acquire funds Congress would not approve, but none of the wall so far is under construction, or ever was. It seems as if anything that is built is only built to replace existing outdated or depleted structures but not many new sections of the wall have been built — only about forty miles of replacement barrier this year. In some areas along the Southern border, the construction of a wall would be a geographical nightmare. This is all known — since the beginning of Trump’s rhetoric before the 2016 election.
Statement From Trump
This morning, Trump commented on illegal immigration in response to the El Paso, Texas terror attack with racial motivations aimed at the Latinx community. He stated;
“I think that illegal immigration — you’re talking about illegal immigration, right? Yeah? I think illegal immigration is a terrible thing for this country. I think you have to come in legally. Ideally, you have to come in through merit. We need people coming in because we have many companies coming into our country. They’re pouring in. And I think illegal immigration is a very bad thing for our country. I think open borders are a very bad thing for our country. And we’re stopping; we’re building a wall right now. We won the lawsuit in the Supreme Court two weeks ago. The wall is well under construction. It’s being built at a rapid pace. We need that. We need strong immigration laws. But we want to allow millions of people to come in because we need them. We have companies coming in from Japan, all over Europe, all over Asia. They’re opening up companies here. They need people to work. We have a very low unemployment rate. So, I believe we have to have legal immigration, not illegal immigration.”
He claims that the wall is still being built, but it will not be near the 1,000+ miles he wants. Due to the shifting around of funds, and some private donations that “filled in some gaps,” the Pentagon has enough money to build 256 miles of wall. It is unlikely that the President will meet even that goal, given the legal hurdles and other forms of opposition that came with his announcement. He could, but that would require a lot more funding. The wall is certainly not being built at a “rapid pace.”