As 2018 comes to a close, the U. S. government is in the midst of a partial shutdown, thanks to President Trump’s insistence on building a wall on America’s southern border. Trump built his political career on the idea that America’s southern border…
As 2018 comes to a close, the U. S. government is in the midst of a partial shutdown, thanks to President Trump’s insistence on building a wall on America’s southern border. Trump built his political career on the idea that America’s southern border is dangerously porous and, likewise, that he’s the only one who can fix that. But how many people actually enter America through the border that year? The government’s statistics on border crossings can help shed some light on that question.
« I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively, » Trump said when he announced his presidential run in 2015. « I will build a great wall on our southern border and I’ll have Mexico pay for that wall. »
The southern border has remained one of Trump’s fixations ever since then, but his plans to build a wall on the border have sputtered. There are various estimates as to how much it would cost to build such a wall, ranging from $8 billion (according to Trump himself) to $70 billion (according to congressional Democrats).
