How Much Money The Government Spends In Patroling The Border

Every bit Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump prepares to give a major accost to bring clarity to the defoliation surrounding his immigration proposals Wednesday night, one Trump position that has remained constant is his penchant for a "big, beautiful wall."

Despite the ongoing effort and coin poured into patrolling the nation's 1,989 mile southern edge beyond rugged terrain, Trump insists he will exercise it better with one big wall — that he promises Mexico will pay for — to stop anyone from illegally crossing into the United States.

What Trump never mentions is that American taxpayers have already spent billions of dollars on border security, including a 700-mile long physical barrier along the southern border with Mexico.

Over the past 24 years, the amount of coin spent on edge security has increased 14 times; the number of border patrol agents have increased 500 percent; the amount of border wall has grown from 77 miles to 700 miles since 2000; and the number of people existence apprehended trying to cross the edge have decreased past four-fifths.

It's not continuous and was built in sections to accommodate — or divert — high trafficked border crossings, only the physical barriers already exist.

A steel wall interspersed with double fencing was built along the California border separating Tijuana and San Diego that at present extends into the Pacific Ocean.

Arizona has 123 miles of pedestrian fencing and 183 miles of vehicle blockades. Durable "anti-ram" fencing extends half-dozen feet under ground and xv feet into the air to deter tunnel smugglers in Nogales. Texas is too domicile to 123 miles of a pedestrian argue.

These structures take not only fabricated it difficult for smugglers and immigrants to cross, merely information technology's made information technology hard for people who live in border towns who used to cross freely for commerce, school and family.

David Taintor / Department of Homeland Security

The increase in border security funding started after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Fear of infiltration of strange enemies spurred Congress to increase its spending on border and port security. Funding for the border jumped from $i.ane billion in 2001 to $1.v billion in 2003.

V years later, Congress attempted to laissez passer comprehensive immigration reform, which would have increased border security and provided the estimated 11 to 12 meg people living in the country illegally with a path to citizenship. While the bill failed, politicians' commitment to secure the borders – mostly the southern border – did not.

Every appropriations bill has included money to secure the border. Then much and then that funding increased from $one.5 billion in 2005 to $2.iii billion in 2007 — somewhen increasing to $3.8 billion in the 2015 fiscal year.

In 2013, Congress again tried to pass immigration reform. Once more the try failed. The edge security proposals of that then-called "Gang of Eight" pecker would have increased dramatically, doubling the number of full-fourth dimension border patrol agents to more than than 38,400. It also would take added to the construction of a physical border, including double fencing. And it would accept added to the amount of virtual security like drones and mobile surveillance.

That pecker would accept ready aside a whopping $46.three billion over 10 years to motility toward the more militarized border. But with the federal authorities at present spending nearly $4 billion per year on border security, it's not much less than what the Gang of Eight would take hoped.

Donald Trump has not still said how much his border security plan would cost or how he would ensure that United mexican states pays for it but the American taxpayer is already shelling out a hefty amount to secure the nation's southern border.