The Trump wall, commonly referred to as "The Wall", is an expansion of the Mexico–United States barrier that started during the U.S. presidency of Donald Trump and was a critical part of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign platform leading up to the year's election. Throughout his campaign, Trump called for the construction of a border wall. He said that, if elected, he would "build the wall and make Mexico pay for it". Then-Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto rejected Trump's claim that Mexico would pay for the wall; all construction in fact relied exclusively on U.S. funding.
In January 2017, Trump signed Executive Order 13767, which formally directed the U.S. government to begin wall construction along the U.S.–Mexico border using existing federal funding. After a political struggle for funding, including an appropriations lapse resulting in a government shutdown for 35 days, and the declaration of a national emergency, construction started in 2018.
The U.S. built new barriers along , of which previously had no barrier. Much of the remainder consists of steel bollard wall where previously there had been fencing or vehicle barriers. Additionally, a private organization called We Build the Wall constructed under of new wall on private property near El Paso, Texas. By August 2020, the portions constructed by the organization were already in serious danger of collapsing due to erosion, and the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York unsealed an indictment charging four people, including former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon, with a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of donors by illegally taking funds intended to finance construction for personal use. An unpublished memo from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection leaked in March 2022 revealed that the "impenetrable" border wall had been breached more than 3,200 times from October 2018 to September 2021. Nonetheless, CBP officials say the bollard fencing remains a valuable border security tool when combined with surveillance technology and sufficient personnel.
Initially, on January 20, 2021, newly inaugurated U.S. president Joe Biden terminated the national emergency and halted construction of the wall, but the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security later hinted that the construction of the wall may continue under Biden's administration. In April 2021, the Biden administration cancelled all border wall projects that were being paid for with funds diverted from U.S. Department of Defense accounts. By October 2021, several border wall construction contracts had been cancelled and, in some cases, land that was acquired by the government from private property owners via eminent domain, were returned to their owners. On July 28, 2022, the Biden administration announced it would fill four wide gaps in Arizona near Yuma, an area with some of the busiest corridors for illegal crossings.
Background
The Mexico–United States barrier is a series of vertical barriers along the Mexico–United States border aimed at preventing illegal crossings from Mexico into the United States. The barrier is not one contiguous structure, but a discontinuous series of physical obstructions variously classified as "fences" or "walls".
Between the physical barriers, security is provided by a "virtual fence" of sensors, cameras, and other surveillance equipment used to dispatch United States Border Patrol agents to suspected migrant crossings. As of January 2009, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that it had more than of barriers in place. The total length of the continental border is .
The concept for the proposed expansion was developed by campaign advisers Sam Nunberg and Roger Stone in 2014 as a memorable talking point Trump could use to tie his business experience as a builder and developer to his immigration policy proposals. The idea for the wall was first aired publicly in January 2015 at the Iowa Freedom Summit hosted by Citizens United and Steve King. Trump proposed it again at Trump's June 2015 announcement speech for his 2015–2016 presidential campaign, along with a claim that Mexico would pay for it. Trump has repeated the claim many times.
Structure
In February 2017, Trump said "the wall is getting designed right here" but did not offer specifics. In March 2017, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) began accepting prototype ideas for a U.S.–Mexico border wall from companies and said it would issue a request for proposals by March 24.