As he enters the closing stretch of his re-election campaign, Donald Trump's signature campaign promise from 2016 is becoming a larger reality. His long-touted southern border wall now has more than 300 miles completed, with construction continuing amidst a goal of 400-450 miles by the end of the year.
After struggling for three years to get cooperation or funding from Congress for the wall project, construction finally ramped up earlier this year when federal courts ruled the president has the right to tap Pentagon funds for the wall.
Most of what has been completed so far is replacement for existing fences and structures. "A lot of the outdated barriers--things you could just step across literally--those have been replaced with 30-foot bollard walls, which make it much more difficult for people to get through," say Bob Price with Breitbart Texas.
Price tells KTRH the "wall" is actually much more than that. "They've built access roads so Border Patrol can get in there faster, they've built electronic surveillance, they've built anti-tunneling technology," he says. "All of that is included in the border wall system, and that's what's making it so effective."
One area where the wall's effectiveness is already evident is stopping illegal drugs. "It makes the cartels shift their operations to go around those (barriers)," says Price. "It forces them out into more wide open areas where surveillance and electronic monitoring can detect them, and consequently we've seen a massive increase in the amount of drug seizures along the southwest border this year."
Of course, all of this could be short-lived depending on what happens in November. "If Democrats win the election and win the White House, I wouldn't be surprised to see them tear down border walls," says Price. "Something voters really need to consider is what direction they want that to go."