President Donald Trump, who is just days away from leaving office, declared that he kept his promise on Tuesday in terms of building a wall at the southern border. The president's statement marks 450 miles of construction at the border while his administration rushes to handle damage control following the attack on the Capitol last week.
Making his first public appearance since his speech that led to last week's Capitol siege, Trump adopted a strategy he often uses in times of political dispute: immigration. On Tuesday, the president visited Alamo, a city in Texas, to show off the completion of 450 miles of the border wall, which played a vital role during his 2016 campaign.
According to Vox, this is Trump's last-ditch effort to saving his legacy and deviating attention from upcoming impeachment proceedings just days before he leaves office. Barely talking about the challenges surrounding him, Trump alluded to the several policies he has pursued to radically overhaul the immigration system.
Trump took the opportunity to slam his predecessors, noting that he kept his promise, unlike previous presidents. He described the completion of the 450 miles of border wall as an extraordinary milestone, as he surveyed the half-mile stretch of the recently built border wall, adding that nobody knows how big that is.
It can be recalled that Trump had assured that Mexico would be paying for the wall, which is a part of the president's plan to introduce more restrictive immigration policies. Trump touted himself as a "builder-turned-politician" as supporters chanted "build the wall" at rallies and every time he visited the border to check the construction, NBC News reported.
In his speech at Alamo, Texas, where he signed a plaque on the wall, Trump pointed out the several politicians promised to build a border in a bid to get elected but did the exact opposite. He went on to say that he, unlike previous presidents, actually built the 450 miles of a border wall, which his administration had promised to build by the end of 2020, and last week, officials confirmed that had been completed, Fox News reported.
Aside from that, there are over 300 miles still under construction, which is a significant shift in construction from last year, when just 100 miles had been built by Jan. 2020, the officials said. According to critics, a major portion of the construction merely replaces an already existing construction, but officials deny such a comparison, insisting that the old landing mat-style structure could easily be pushed over. However, the new 30-foot steel bollards are made using cameras, lighting, and cameras.