The United States government has built no new border walls during the Trump administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed exclusively to DailyMail.com on Thursday.
Border barriers erected between the U.S. and Mexico since Inauguration Day 2017 have consisted of supplements to existing walls and replacements for outmoded or decreipt sections.
'The first new wall project, where no barrier currently exists, is anticipated to start in April,' CBP spokesman Roger Maier said in an email, identifying Hidalgo County as the construction project's location.
CBP said last year that it was 'designing and constructing approximately 25 miles of levee wall system' in that county.
President Donald Trump has claimed repeatedly that he is 'building' the long-anticipated border wall that he promised during the 2016 campaign.
In December he wrote on Twitter that 'newly built walls' were stopping caravans of Central American migrants from entering the U.S., and that '[w]e have already built large new sections' in addition to ongoing renovations.
That appears to be untrue.
The documented border wall construction the Trump administration has engaged in so far has consisted of replacing some existing barriers and reinforcing others with secondary fencing
Trump's base continues to go wild for his wall but Coulter warns that he ignores them at his own peril
Maier said that 'CBP has constructed approximately 38 of 40 miles of wall in place of outdated designs,' using funds Congress appropriatedfor fiscal 2017.
Those replacements are up in San Diego and El Centro, California; Santa Teresa, New Mexico; and El Paso, Texas.
Utilizing Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 funds, CBP has constructed approximately 38 of 40 miles of wall in place of outdated designs in San Diego and El Centro, California, Santa Teresa, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas, providing new capability for the U.S. Border Patrol. This barrier replaced dilapidated infrastructure, half of which was Normandy-style vehicle barrier. Construction has also started on the San Diego Secondary replacement, the first project funded in FY 2018. The first new wall project, where no barrier currently exists, is anticipated to start in April in Hidalgo County of the Rio Grande Valley Sector.
— U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Roger Maier (emphasis added by DailyMail.com)
'This barrier replaced dilapidated infrastructure, half of which was Normandy-style vehicle barrier,' he said.
'Construction has also started on the San Diego Secondary replacement, the first project funded in [fiscal] 2018. The first new wall project, where no barrier currently exists, is anticipated to start in April in Hidalgo County of the Rio Grande Valley Sector.'
Trump has rediirected billions of dollars to his wall project through a national emergency declaration, claiming at the same time that the project is well underway.
Both houses of Congress voted this week to rescind that declaration with a resolution that the president has said he will veto, perhaps as soon as Friday.
Some of Trump's claims about his construction
In January he tweeted a complaint that '[t]he Fake News Media keeps saying we haven’t built any NEW WALL.'
He provided a photograph of a section of border wall, saying: 'Below is a section just completed on the Border. Anti-climbing feature included. Very high, strong and beautiful! Also, many miles already renovated and in service!'
Trump didn't say where the photo was taken, but a date-stamp indicated it was created in October.
Trump drew applause and chants of 'Build the wall!' in 2015 and 2016 as he campaigned for the White House, promising to physically separate the U.S. from its southern neighbor with an impenetrable barrier and force Mexico to pay the bill.
That financial pledge morphed into a promise to recoup the cost of a wall
