Trump Administration Taking Huge Steps Toward Building Wall On Mexican Border

Ever since he began to run for office, President Donald Trump has mentioned a wall that he would want to put on the Mexican border. Now, the wall may be even closer to getting started on than ever before. At the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, Donald Trump spoke in front of several people both happy and unhappy to see him. It was here than he dropped the bombshell that the wall is coming, and ahead of schedule.

He told the people at CPAC the following.

“We’re going to build a wall. Don’t worry about it. We’re building the wall; we’re building the wall. In fact, it’s going to start soon, way ahead of schedule.”

What may come as a surprise to many is that while he said this, the crowd had a good mix of boos in it along with some cheers. This was not surprising to heat for Trump, who has heard many people come out against the wall since the idea was put out there. This by people even in his own party, especially in the Democratic side.

It was not too long after Trump made his speech at CPAC that U.S. Customs and Border Protection released a notification regarding the wall. In that, Trump and his administration will soon take submissions for “prototype wall structures.” This says that they are certainly still on a mission to get the wall started in his first year in office. This is even without funding from Mexico, which Trump has claimed he would get for the wall since day one.

Donald Trump has claimed that the wall would run for 1,000 miles along the nearly 2,000-mile border with Mexico. Interestingly, a near 700-mile wall of sorts currently sits on the American side of the Mexican border already. This means that either Trump will keep this wall and build around the already existing structure or he would tear it down to place the new wall in the same area.

Donald Trump has claimed in the past that this wall won’t all be, well, wall. Some of it would be fencing, which means it would make sense to keep all or parts of this near 700 miles of structure already in existence. This would cost less than the current assumed plan of building a huge near or right at 1,000-mile wall and having to then add some fencing when America already has this in play.

Trump has estimated the current cost of the wall would be around $12 billion as it stands right now. However, due to the fact that he is wanting a 50-foot wall ranging near 1,000 miles that would even go underground by 10 feet, it would cost near $38 billion according to Technology Review. However, other results out of places like Reuters have it sitting at $21.6 billion. Both of which higher than the original estimate made by President Trump.

Reuters also claims it will also take over three years to completely finish, meaning Donald Trump will be up for re-election or be out of office by the time the project would finish up if it started soon. This may be why he wants to make sure it gets started sooner rather than later, as it could finish under his administration and not an incoming one that could stop the process before it finishes.

While Donald Trump has been pushing Mexico footing the bill, the current Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and the two former Presidents of Mexico have claimed Mexico is not paying for the wall in any way. Forbes reports that Americans will end up paying for the wall, as well as American companies. This due to Trump’s proposed increase on import tax for Mexico.

Even if Trump did somehow get Mexico to pay for the wall, in full, there is more to the wall than just being built. Maintenance for the wall would be needed on a yearly basis, which would come out of federal taxes. Therefore, Americans would pay for the wall for the rest of their lives out of their taxes at a higher rate than they pay for the current fence, which may or may not increase to pay for the wall.

[Featured Image by John Locher/AP Images]