Illegal border crossings have plunged. DHS still says it needs billions to build a wall. [View all]
Source: USA Today
May 23 2025, 7:25 p.m. ET
The Trump administration's claim to the "most secure border in history" has some Senate Republicans asking why DHS needs billions for a border wall. The Department of Homeland Security has asked Congress for $45.6 billion to build hundreds more miles of fencing at the southern border as part of a sweeping tax and spending bill that passed the House and is being debated in the Senate.
"The border is the most secure border we've had in the history of the United States of America," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told the Senate Homeland Security Committee on May 20. "But what we need to do is address the areas that are still vulnerable." President Donald Trump faces challenges as he looks to push his policy agenda in the Senate, where Republicans have a narrow majority and GOP senators are working to balance their support for border security with concerns about rising national debt.
The House version of the funding bill is predicted to add an estimated $3.8 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, said during the committee hearing that at an estimated $14 million a mile, DHS could build more than 3,000 miles of border fence.
The U.S.-Mexico border only runs 1,950 miles from California to Texas; roughly 700 miles of the border is already fenced off. "I'm asking you and the department to sharpen your pencil on that wall request," he told Noem. "It's more than you need."
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/05/23/republican-senators-trump-border-wall/83823629007/
But Mexico was supposed to "pay for it".
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