The Trump administration is continuing to fulfill its promise of building a wall along the southern border in order to stop illegal immigration, human trafficking, and drugs.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) told Fox on Oct. 25, that the construction of a new wall is undergoing along the area near the Rio Grande River in Texas.
CBP says that 75 miles that have already been put in place under the Trump administration, replacing ineffective fences or other barriers.
The new wall is being built in a sector southeast of McAllen in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, which has the largest illegal crossing numbers. CBP says that through August, more than 325,000 people have been caught in this sector.
“Rio Grande Valley is by far our busiest sector, so getting this new wall system capability down there for [the agents] is truly a game-changer,” a CBP spokesman told Fox. “Just last week, the agents on the frontlines told us the wall is something they need.”
“People can walk through or across a vehicle barrier with drugs or other contraband, but can’t walk through an 18- to 30-foot wall with anti-climb features, sensors, and cameras,” the spokesman said.
Pentagon: Border Wall Going Up at About 1 Mile Per Day, and Rising
A Pentagon spokesperson announced that the border wall is going up at the pace of about one mile per day—and rising.
Jonathan Hoffman, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, updated reporters on border wall construction progress during a Sept. 19 press briefing during which he said that by the end of next year, the goal was to have completed 450 miles.
“Right now we’re at a pace of about a mile a day. And we’ll see that continue to go up,” Hoffman said.
“It’s going to be a few months but our goal is that by the end of next year, we will have completed over 100—450 miles of wall construction all told across the entire federal government,” he said.
“And we think we can get it close to 500 miles by the end of next year, depending on certain terrain conditions,” Trump added. “But we’re doing all of the most important areas. We have a lot of natural barriers, like mountains and streams and rivers and—some pretty vicious and violent rivers, actually. But it’s—it’s an amazing project.”