Trump’s border wall sees slow start in second term

President Trump, closing out his first term, was erecting his border wall at a rate of more than a mile a day as he rushed to fulfill one of his marquee promises from the 2016 campaign.

Construction is moving much more slowly in his second term, however.

As of Jan. 21, or a year and a day after he took office again, his administration had completed just slightly more than 27 miles of new barrier. That’s a rate of about two-tenths of a mile per day.

Nearly 7 of those miles were completed by the Defense Department.

That means Customs and Border Protection, the Homeland Security Department agency that oversees the boundaries, has finished only about 20 miles despite expansive legal powers to waive environmental laws and a massive infusion of cash in this summer’s budget bill.

“We’ve got to ramp that up, for sure,” Tricia McLaughlin, homeland security assistant secretary, told The Washington Times. “CBP is working on it.”

The slow progress on the wall stands in stark contrast with the rest of the border situation.

Thanks to a host of new policies and some flexing of emergency powers, the administration has forged the calmest borders on record.

The latest numbers, covering December, show Border Patrol agents nabbed just 6,478 illegal immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico boundary.

Two years ago, in December 2023, that figure was nearly 250,000 — the worst month ever recorded.

Of those, more than 70% may have been caught and released, Border Patrol agents say.

Last month, agents at the southern border recorded zero catch-and-release cases. December marked the eighth straight month of that feat.

“Our agents and officers have set a new standard for border security, achieving historic results that speak for themselves,” said Rodney Scott, commissioner at CBP.

After the success in stopping the surge of illegal immigrants, some in Congress questioned last year why Mr. Trump needed so much money for a border wall in his second term.

Those concerns were brushed aside by the majority, which approved $46.5 billion to complete a massive expansion of the wall.

When all the money is spent, some 1,419 miles of the 1,954-mile border will be covered by a wall. The remaining 535 miles are too rugged or remote to need a wall, CBP says.

About 644 miles were walled off as of Inauguration Day.

Also planned are 536 miles of water barriers and 708 miles of secondary wall.

As of Oct. 10, CBP had completed 9.5 miles of new primary wall, one-tenth of a mile of replacement wall and 1.9 miles of secondary wall.

As of Jan. 15, those tallies stood at 13.3 miles of new primary wall, 2.3 miles of replacement wall and 4 miles of secondary wall.

The Times reached out to CBP for this report.

Ms. McLaughlin said the Homeland Security Department knows what Mr. Trump has asked of it.

“We will get it done, that’s a mandate,” she told The Times. “That is coming, and the American people will get that delivered.”

Support for the barrier has risen and fallen over the 20 years since Congress first ordered President George W. Bush to carry out a massive wall-building campaign.

The initial vision, contained in the Secure Fence Act of 2006, was for 700 miles of double-layer fencing. That was watered down a year later in a spending bill that deleted the double-tier requirement and left the final plans up to the Homeland Security Department.

By the time President Obama left office, about 350 miles of the border had some fencing, and another 300 miles had vehicle barriers that could deter cars and trucks but allowed migrants on foot to sneak through gaps.

Mr. Trump went on his building binge, and when Congress refused to give him all the money he wanted, he used an emergency declaration to siphon money from Pentagon accounts to bolster his plans.

The 2020 election marked another setback. President Biden promised not to build “another foot” of wall on his watch. He left some materials to rust, sold others at pennies on the dollar, and left gaps that smugglers exploited.

By early 2025, when Mr. Trump took office, support for the wall had returned to a majority, with Republicans and independents in favor, though Democrats remained unconvinced.