President Donald Trump has been delivering on his promise to erect a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan announced this week that the agency accomplished its goal, which was to have 450 miles of the southern border wall completed by the end of 2020.
“Promises made, promises kept,” Breitbart reports Morgan as saying during a press conference on Tuesday. “I couldn’t be more proud and privileged to announce that on December 31 we were briefed that we had completed 450 miles of new border wall system.”
In doing so, Morgan made good on President Donald Trump’s promise, made in July of 2020, to “have over 450 miles built by the end of the year.” Morgan, himself, also made that promise a number of times over the past several months.
A massive year
One of the things that makes this accomplishment so impressive is the rate at which it was done, particularly in the past six months.
The Washington Examiner reports that 221 miles of U.S.-Mexico border wall had to be completed from July to December of 2020 in order to meet the 450-mile goal. To provide some perspective, 129 miles had been complete between January and July of 2020, and only 100 during the president’s first three years in office.
Part of the initial slow pace was due to an uncooperative Congress which refused to provide funds for the endeavor. But, despite the opposition, President Trump still made the wall happen.
The Examiner reports that “More than 340 miles of the 450 total newly installed miles are in the place of older fencing, while 40 miles are brand new in previously unsecured areas. The remaining 50-plus miles are secondary fencing or duplicate barriers put up behind the main fence.”
This, according to Morgan, includes 46 miles in the San Diego Sector, 31 miles in the El Centro Sector, 107 miles in the Yuma Sector, 114 miles in the Tucson Sector, 131 miles in the El Paso Sector, and 17 miles in the Rio Grande Valley Sector.
More to come
Morgan also announced that the CBP will continue building. He said that Congress recently provided $1.375 billion in funding for the wall to continue being built.
According to Morgan, this will allow for an additional 350 miles of border wall, taking the total up to 800. This will still be short of President Trump 1,000 mile goal, but all things considered, it is a noteworthy accomplishment.
Morgan added that “we believe that by January 17, 18, or 19, we will have well over 700 miles of that 800 funded, the contract will already have been awarded.”
The post CBP has met its 2020 goal for the U.S.-Mexico wall first appeared on Conservative Institute.
No comments: