Donald Trump secures about $1.6 billion for border barriers
President Donald Trump has secured $1.57 billion for barriers along the southwest border — advancing his promise to secure the border but falling significantly short of his desired $25 billion for a wall.
"We funded the initial down payment of $1.6 billion," Trump said March 23 after signing a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill into law. "We are going to be starting work literally on Monday on not only on some new wall, not enough, but we are working on that very quickly. But also fixing existing walls and existing acceptable fences."
The funds, however, won't be used to construct any of the wall prototypes standing in California near the U.S.-Mexico border, which Trump toured earlier this month.
The designated funds, the bill said, "shall only be available for operationally effective designs deployed as of the date of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017, (Public Law 115–31), such as currently deployed steel bollard designs, that prioritize agent safety." U.S. Customs and Border Protection told PolitiFact on March 13, 2018, that the wall prototypes were still being evaluated.
The bill Trump signed specifically called for:
• $251 million for approximately 14 miles of secondary fencing along the southwest border in the San Diego sector;
• $445 million for 25 miles of primary pedestrian levee fencing along the southwest border in the Rio Grande Valley Sector;
• $196 million for primary pedestrian fencing along the southwest border in the Rio Grande Valley Sector;
• $445 million for replacement of existing primary pedestrian fencing along the southwest border;
• $38 million for border barrier planning and design; and
• $196 million for acquisition and deployment of border security technology
Earlier in the day, Trump threatened to veto the bill because it did not fully fund his long-promised border wall.
"I am considering a VETO of the Omnibus Spending Bill based on the fact that the 800,000 plus DACA recipients have been totally abandoned by the Democrats (not even mentioned in Bill) and the BORDER WALL, which is desperately needed for our National Defense, is not fully funded," Trump tweeted.
Trump described the $1.6 billion as "a short-term funding." The funds will be used to secure the border through fencing. It's still unclear which wall prototype will be used for the wall, which Mexico still says it's not paying for, despite Trump's promise.
For now, we continue to rate Trump's promise to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it as In the Works.
Sources:
House.gov, Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018
