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"Build the Wall" was one of the rallying cries of the 2016 Trump presidential campaign.

After various fights in Congress, the Trump team could claim at the beginning of 2020 that

Pres. Trump’s Administration crossed the 100-mile mark, with 100 miles of wall built.

Whether or not this is an impressive achievement, whether or not the 2016 promise is fulfilled, are subjective questions and beyond the scope of this website.

There are other portions of the wall being erected or scheduled. Indeed,

the administration expects (...) to finish 509 miles of new barrier by August 2021.

It also means that there are thousands of kilometers of US-Mexico border where there is no wall today, and won't be in August 2021.

As a consequence, I would have imagined the 2020 Trump campaign to boast about what has already been built and to announce further constructions in case of re-election.

Yet Trump didn't say a word on this subject during the first presidential debate. His campaign's online platform has a lot to say about immigration:

END ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND PROTECT AMERICAN WORKERS
Block Illegal Immigrants from Becoming Eligible for Taxpayer-Funded Welfare, Healthcare, and Free College Tuition
Mandatory Deportation for Non-Citizen Gang Members
Dismantle Human Trafficking Networks
End Sanctuary Cities to Restore our Neighborhoods and Protect our Families
Prohibit American Companies from Replacing United States Citizens with Lower-Cost Foreign Workers
Require New Immigrants to Be Able to Support Themselves Financially

But I couldn't find any mention of the wall.

Has Trump's campaign made any statement about its plans to keep building a wall at the Mexican border if Trump is reelected, beyond what is already scheduled for August 2021 by its administration? If yes, at what speed? Have they set any goal in term of mileage of wall to achieve before 2024?

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  • I heard that trump was authorizing overtime and pushing for rush on the current wall building in hopes that he can make a big announcement prior to elections on a milestone of miles of wall built.
    – dsollen
    Oct 5, 2020 at 15:14
  • Looking at the map, the bits that don't have any wall at all are usually the bits where the terrain is quite forbidding all on its own
    – Valorum
    Oct 5, 2020 at 17:39
  • 2
    Someone could also ask about bringing back coal. Oct 5, 2020 at 21:07
  • @Valorum : they are both the places where a wall is less useful (because crossing the border is difficult) and where it costs the most (because building is difficult). That's why any precision from the GOP about their future plans would be helpful...
    – Evargalo
    Oct 6, 2020 at 6:57

1 Answer 1

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Trump himself has stated on multiple occasions that the wall will be finished "very shortly", most recently in rallies in Michigan (10th Sep) & Nevada (12th & 13th Sep). For example:

My administration has achieved the most secure border in American history. We ended catch and release. We stopped asylum fraud. We’ve deported 20,000 gang members and over half a million criminal aliens. We built over 320 miles, as of today, border wall and we’re adding 10 new miles every single week. We’re doing about 10 miles a week and we’ll be finished with the wall very shortly. And you think, “That was an easy one.” That was not an easy one. We were fought.

If the figure of 320 miles completed so far is accurate, and further construction takes place at an average of 10 miles a week, assuming the whole of the 1,954-mile border is to be covered this would be completed around the end of October 2023.

Mike Pence has been slightly more explicit, and on at least two occasions has stated that, given four more years, the Trump administration will "build it all" - at a 'Workers for Trump' campaign event in Pennsylvania on September 1st, and a few weeks later at a 'Veterans for Trump' event in Arizona:

Joe Biden wants to bury our economy under an avalanche of red tape. Got his own version of the Green New Deal. President Trump? Well he’s cut more federal red tape than any president ever and I promise you, we’re going to keep on chopping for four more years. Joe Biden? Joe Biden is for open borders, sanctuary cities, free lawyers and free healthcare for illegal immigrants. President Trump has made record investments in border security, stood with Customs and Border Patrol and we built more than 300 miles of a border wall on the southern border of the United States and with four more years we’re going to build it all.

So yes, the Trump campaign - or at least the two figureheads - have boasted about the current progress made on the wall, and have made statements which suggest that the administration will complete the wall if reelected. However, I'm unaware of any concrete* campaign promises which give explicit details on any planned construction schedule outside of the 10 miles per week figure.

*pun not intended

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