CBP leader outlines plans to build border wall

As President Donald Trump praised a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico, he also touted the work his administration has done so far to build a wall along the southern border, despite Mexico’s repeated assurances that it would not pay for it.

“We’re doing a lot of work, people don’t realize,” Trump told reporters Monday. “I don’t really want to talk about it because I could build it quickly, at one time, which is what I want. But we’ve been building it over the last year and a half, with $3.2 billion.”

However, the amount of U.S. taxpayer money Congress has set aside for border barriers is less than what he told reporters.

And despite Trump’s insistence, all of the construction projects underway are to replace existing fences, not build new ones.

In an interview with the USA TODAY Network, the man Trump appointed to lead U.S. Customs and Border Protection — the federal agency in charge of securing the border — outlined his plans for future barriers, including his desire to double the amount of fencing along the U.S.Mexico border, from the existing 650 miles.

“We’re looking at ideally to have a wall system in a little over half of the border,” Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said, using the term to refer not only to physical barriers, but the accompanying roads, technology and staffing.

To date, CBP has secured more than $1.6 billion to build less than 80 miles of fencing; nearly two-thirds of them are replacements of existing fencing.

Trump has requested an additional $1.6 billion in the fiscal year 2019 funding request to build 65 new miles of border barriers in south Texas, but Congress has yet to approve that money.

Previously, Trump has said he would be willing to shut down the government in order to pressure Congress for additional funding for his promised border wall. But on Monday, he indicated he would wait until after the Nov. 6 election, citing the pressure it could put on vulnerable Republicans on the ballot.

“Do I want to do it before the election? Personally, yes. But I don’t want to do that for a different reason, because I have some very fine people that are running in close races, and it may affect them and it may not,” Trump said. “It may be good for them. I happen to think it would be good for them.”

After Trump signed an executive order directing them to move forward with plans to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, Customs and Border Protection officials said they assessed which parts of the border would benefit most from the construction of these barriers to reduce human and drug trafficking.

They compiled the full analysis in a report submitted to Congress earlier this year. However, it hasn’t been made public because it’s deemed to be law-enforcement sensitive. McAleenan told the

USA TODAY Network that many of these areas are urban communities along the border where agents have a smaller window to catch smugglers before they blend into the neighborhoods.

But the key challenge for the federal government to double the size of border barriers will be in Texas, where most of the land is private, and where most of the border remains without a fence. A

USA TODAY Network analysis found that nearly 5,000 parcels of land near the Texas border would be impacted by the construction of new barriers.

New efforts to seize private property to build new barriers could run into lengthy delays. Already, some 80 condemnation cases are still playing out in court nearly a decade after they were filed, as the Trump administration is looking to survey land for future construction of barriers, especially in south Texas.

“We’ve identified priority sectors in the Rio Grande Valley. That’s where we’ve seen 50 percent of our crossings this year, and if you look at the past four years, over 50 percent of the total illegally into the U.S.,” McAleenan said. “We need some new infrastructure to give us better control of that segment of the border.”

To date, the federal government has initiated only two recent condemnation cases in south Texas for that purpose. CBP officials said they are in the process of seeking out landowners and getedged ting permission to assess properties along the border where they might build barriers. But even getting access could be a challenge.

For example, last week, the Laredo City Council voted against allowing the federal government on land that the city owns in the Rio Grande Valley to survey and test it for construction of border barriers.

McAleenan acknowl- those challenges, but said they will have to work with property owners.

“It’s a process of notification, community engagement, evaluation of the fitness of that property by engineers and experts for building a wall, and then ensuring that property owners have access on both sides of the wall for continued use of their property,” he said.