WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — President Donald Trump’s border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border would be a series of fences and walls that would cost as much as $21.6 billion, and take more than three years to build, according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security internal document obtained by Reuters Thursday.
The report’s estimated price-tag is far higher than the $12 billion figure Trump cited while on the campaign trail, and the $15 billion figure cited by House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
According to the Reuters report, Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly will receive the same document, the administration is not expected to take all the actions it recommends. It lays out just what it would take to seal the border in three phases of construction of walls and fences, covering just over 1,200 miles by the end of 2020.
There are already 654 miles of the border forfeited, meaning new construction would extend almost the length of the entire border.
The report said the first phase would be the smallest, it targets sections that span 26 miles near San Diego, Calif; El Paso, Texas; and in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley. Construction of the first phase will cost $360 million, according to the report.
It assumes funding for construction of the wall would come from Congress by April or May, this would allow Homeland Security sufficient time to secure contractors and break ground by September.
President Trump has said Congress should front the cost of the construction up front, and that Mexico will reimburse U.S. taxpayers. Mexico, of course, said they won’t be made to pay for the construction of anything. Multiple Congressional delegations are scheduled to visit the border this month in an effort to assess how much funding the project would truly call for.
The report also reveals that the U.S. government has already begun the process of seeking waivers of environmental laws on building in some areas. Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security may be required to go to court to seek eminent domain in order to acquire some of the private land needed to cover the final and most ambitious phase. The government has also already begun working with existing contractors and planning steel purchases for the project.
Trump told law enforcement officials on Wednesday, “the wall is getting designed right now.”
In addition to seeking eminent domain and environmental waivers, the U.S. government would also have to meet the requirements of the International Boundary and Water Commission, a U.S.-Mexico pact over shared waters.
