President Donald Trump wanted to build a border wall between the United States and Mexico in order to prevent entry of unwanted persons into America. He had issued necessary instructions via an executive order in January in which he wanted the project to take off with funds that were available with the Department of Homeland Security.
Unfortunately, the available fund is terribly inadequate, in fact it is like a drop in the ocean and the project has stumbled on a road block and suffered a setback.
Magnitude of the problem
The proposed border wall is to be built between the U.S. and Mexico and would be in the region of 600 miles. It will have to cover 354 miles of fencing to prevent entry of unauthorized people which could include illegal migrants. Over and above of that there is another 300 miles of vehicle barriers which will be meant to put a check on those who try to enter in vehicles.
As per estimates of the government, the average cost of fencing would be around $6.5 million per mile and the average cost per mile of vehicle barriers is $1.8 million. These would add up to a whopping $21.6 billion against the initial estimate of $12 billion.
This is not what President Trump had bargained for and it has upset his plans.
A probable solution
Department of Homeland Security has indicated that it can arrange for a maximum of $20 million for the multibillion-dollar project. This could be though reallocation of funds from existing projects - $5 million from a fence project in Arizona and another $15 million from a project of fitting cameras on Border Patrol trucks.
DHS has added that this amount can finance only the initial stages of the project like contracts for prototypes, but beyond that, it would require much more finance.
This is a problem for which Trump has to find a solution. He promised to build the U.S. - Mexico border wall during his campaign, and had said that Mexico would pay for it.
That promise had been appreciated by his supporters but, he had never bargained for the huge cost involved. In case the border wall has to come up, the President would have to look elsewhere for finance – and, American taxpayers may have to chip in to make his dream come true.