The Trump administration has put up more border wall during the coronavirus pandemic than at any similar block of time in the nearly three and a half years the president has been in office.
Since March 16, the Monday after President Trump declared a national emergency, the federal government has completed 77 more miles of border fence at various parts of the U.S.-Mexico border. It is an increase of more than 50% from the 139 miles of fence that builders installed as of mid-March, according to Customs and Border Protection.
As of Tuesday, 216 miles of fence has gone up in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California as a result of projects undertaken by the Trump administration.
As of last August, 60 miles of wall was built. Through the fall and early winter months, an average of 10 miles per installed each month. That figure skyrocketed to 25 miles per month between March and June.
CBP and the Army Corps of Engineers oversee the projects and the construction process. The two federal agencies are working 339 miles of construction projects at present and planning how to spend funding for 183 miles of fencing. In total, more than 660 miles of fencing has been funded to date. The fencing stretches from 18 to 30 feet tall. Most will replace inferior and dilapidated barriers that are easy to climb over.
Trump will meet with border officials on Tuesday in Yuma, Arizona, then see a recently completed border wall site in nearby San Luis, Arizona. He will attend a “commemoration” ceremony for 200 miles of finished wall projects and will tout his administration’s progress on the central campaign promise to build a wall. The trip marks his first to the border in 2020.
