Border Wall Update – What the deal would mean for the southern border
Bottom Line: In mid-January I brought you a border wall update depicting how much “wall” we have at the southern border, what’s been happening with it the past couple of years and the significance of the president’s $5.7 billion request. Here’s a quick recap of relevant points before getting into what the $1.375 billion worth of new “wall” equates to.
The US currently has 654 miles of physical barriers on the southern border
That’s 33.8% of the entire southern border that now has a physical barrier
Work is ongoing to replace 280 miles of the existing border wall/fencing.
You might recall President Trump talking about the need to fix and modernize parts of the existing wall previously. That’s what happening right now and what’s been mostly worked on over the past year and a half. The president’s priority now is to obtain funding for the actual expansion of the southern border wall. The $5.7 billion would have extended the wall by 234 miles. By now you’ve likely heard that the $1.375 billion would cover 55 miles in the Rio Grande. If this deal goes down here’s what to consider...
At the end of construction 36.6% of the southern border would have a wall
That’s what this represents. An additional 2.8% of the total southern border having a “wall”. So, about this 55-mile project. How long will is the estimate to build it? The best estimate I found was six to eight months. That’s instructive. Why? Let’s say this is approved. This funding deal goes through September – which happens to be seven months away. In other words, this amount of money should be enough to get the job done just around the time another budget deal comes up. I’m thinking that’s not a coincidence in this process – just not something that politically neither side feels the need to discuss publicly. I’d suspect the president knows this too and will likely sign this deal and keep his border wall projects rolling.