Following the 2016 elections, Donald Trump became president of the United States, a position he held from 2017 to 2021. During those years, he promoted new measures such as tax reform, the management of international relations and the centerpiece of his platform, the construction of a wall on the border with Mexico.

This last project was one of the most controversial during his time as president, and even after being replaced by President Joe Biden, he continued to insist on the need to finish the wall.

With his zero tolerance policy on illegal immigration, the Republican presidential candidate defends the construction of a barrier as a national security measure.

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How much wall did Trump build?

There were many doubts during the election campaign about whether Trump could legally build and finance the wall. He declared the immigration issue a “national emergency” in 2019, which allowed him to use Pentagon funds to build the barrier.

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When Trump became president, barriers and walls already existed for hundreds of miles, so much of what his government built was replacement or reinforcement of what was already there.

The result of his much-vaunted project was the construction of some 450 miles of wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, although only 80 miles of it was built from scratch.

Why Trump’s wall was not finished

In 2021, Biden succeeded Trump as president of the United States, and he halted construction on the wall. The Democrat rejected Trump’s immigration policy, and even before becoming president he promised to stop the building of the wall, arguing that the real threats come through legal entries. Thus, when Biden took office, he canceled the barrier’s construction contracts.

There were other causes that slowed down the project, such as financial problems and the resistance of the owners of border properties who refused to build walls on their land.

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Could Trump’s wall be finished?

One of Trump’s big campaign promises in his 2024 presidential bid is to continue building the wall, to “stop migration and protect the border.” Trump’s plans include “Operation Lone Star”, a project by Texas Governor Greg Abbott which aims to build 100 miles of wall before the end of 2026.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party led by Kamala Harris has made a change in its immigration policy and could continue with the construction of the wall. Harris has already explained that she knows the importance of border security and has promised to toughen her stance in this regard. Her goal is to sign the border security law and increase controls to reduce fentanyl trafficking, which is her main concern.

Added to this is that Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the former president of Mexico, has stated that if Trump returns to the presidency he will not continue building the wall because “we understand each other very well.”

The U.S.-Mexico border is almost 2,000-miles long, passing through four American states- California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Building a wall on this scale will cost billions, a huge budget allocation which met with resistance from Congress when Trump was president.

In order to build a border wall that would encompass that distance, the federal government would have to exercise eminent domain for portions of the border where there is fencing. This has brought conflict between conservatives and Trump in the past, and will likely do so again if he returns to the White House and resumes his pet project.