Trump’s wall may become a fence

May be constructed using 2006 legislation

WASHINGTON — It was the signature promise of his campaign: Donald Trump vowed to build an impenetrable, concrete wall along the southern border. And Mexico was going to pay for it.

Now as he nears inauguration, that wall is sounding increasingly like it could end up a fence. And his team and Congressional Republicans are hatching a plan in which taxpayers — at least initially — would foot the bill.

Trump and his aides insisted Friday the president-elect wasn’t breaking with his campaign vow.

“Nothing has changed from our perspective,” said top Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway in an interview with CBS. She said Congress was “taking it on themselves to explore different options to pay for the wall,” and voiced no objections.

Trump was more direct: “The dishonest media does not report that any money spent on building the Great Wall (for sake of speed), will be paid back by Mexico later!” he tweeted.

Under the plan being discussed, the new construction would be pushed through without any new border legislation, relying on a 2006 law that authorized more fencing along the southern border.

Congress would pay for it in its annual spending bills.

Trump told the New York Times in an interview Friday that the spending plan would help “speed up the process,” and insisted that even if taxpayers pay upfront, “We’re going to, get reimbursed.”

The money, he told the paper, would likely be recouped through a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he had criticized often in the past.

Trump’s vow to build an impenetrable, concrete wall along the southern border was the signature issue of his campaign. Trump often described a wall made of hardened concrete, rebar and steel that would stand as tall as his rally venues’ ceilings. “Build the wall!” supporters would chant at his rallies. “Who’s going to pay for it?” Trump would ask them. “Mexico!”

Mexican officials repeatedly said the plan was a no-go. But Trump said he knew better.

“Mexico will pay for the wall, 100 percent,” he insisted during a major immigration speech. “They don’t know it yet, but they’re going to pay for the wall.”

Trump never settled on a mechanism for how that would come about.