BBC NEWS: Donald Trump’s proposed wall along the US-Mexico border helped take him to the White House, and with 2020 looming it is already a central part of his bid for re-election.
“The wall is being built. It’s going up rapidly,” the US president said last month.
His original pitch was a “big, beautiful wall” Mexico would pay for. The wall though is unlikely to be any of these. In fact it might not even be a wall.
But he has made much of progress – here is where his project stands now.
Little has actually been built…
On the ground, not much has changed. Since Mr Trump took power, US Customs and Borders Protection (CBP) says a total of 66 miles (106km) of “new border system” has been built.
Much of this is not new wall but rather improvement work on existing structures – there is already about 650 miles of barriers along the border.
The new system will be made of what the CBP describes as a combination of “steel-bollard barrier, all-weather roads, lighting, enforcement cameras and other related technology”.
The US-Mexico border spans 2,000 miles and although Mr Trump originally said his wall would span the entire distance, he has since clarified that natural features like mountains and rivers would help cover the rest.
There should be more to come though with construction planned in several border sites. The administration is aiming to have 509 miles of “new border wall system” ready by the end of 2020.
Click here to read the full story by reporter Thom Poole of BBC News.
