President Donald Trump‘s bold plan to bolster security along the southern border has now cost a hefty $300 million. This substantial amount of money is paid not just for the construction of the highly debated border wall but also for the deployment of military troops to the region where the United States borders Mexico. This project has progressed far from when it was first proposed.
When President Trump first thought of it, he planned to reallocate $3.8 billion from the money that would be used on the Pentagon’s projects, like buying new fighter jets, vehicles, and ships for the military. He thought this would pay for constructing 177 miles of wall.
But, not everyone in Congress was pleased with this plan. They were concerned that taking this money away would make it more difficult for our soldiers to protect our country, it was intended for things like keeping our soldiers safe and equipped.
Thus, although the President intended to ensure the security of the border, apprehensions were accompanying it, primarily concerning how it could impact the performance of the military.
As of March 2025, the deployment of troops along the southern border has risen. The Pentagon has deployed 1,500 active-duty troops, including 500 Marines, to secure the border. The action followed an executive order that President Trump signed upon his re-election and said the region is a ‘national emergency.’
These soldiers are mostly there to help with tasks like making sure everything continues to go well, moving supplies around from one location to another, and creating barriers. Still, there is a question of whether they will begin performing the work that is normally done by police officers, such as actually enforcing the law. If they did that, it would be a departure from the way things have recently been done.
Pictured here is part of the wall, 10 feet thick and 25 feet high, that Israelis have built to keep out the Palestinians, with the blessing of the American media and the Democratic party leadership, both of which hate, oppose and denounce any such wall on our border with Mexico. pic.twitter.com/d6R5Os1X8S
— Michael Hoffman (@HoffmanMichaelA) August 11, 2018
In response to the news that smugglers have been getting through new parts of the border wall using affordable power tools, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is setting aside as much as $300 million for something they’re calling “quality assurance” contracts. The main idea with these deals is to keep an eye on how well the wall is being built and to find any weak spots that might let people through.
People soon found out that they could use a simple, $100 cordless saw to cut through the big metal poles filled with concrete in just a few minutes. Those poles are there to stop people, but it turns out that making the wall taller, like President Trump wanted, actually made it easier to create “adult-size gaps” once someone had made a hole.
Gov. Greg Abbott
installs anti-climb walls along the US-Mexico border : Eight-foot gates are strung together and wrapped in razor wire pic.twitter.com/WrDgPpt6CV— Leah Rain ✝️🇺🇸🎸🏝️ (@LeahRain77) December 12, 2023
The funding and carrying out of President Trump’s plan to secure the border are still running into big problems with politics and the law. Important Democrats like Charles E. Schumer, who is the minority leader in the Senate, and Nancy Pelosi, who is the Speaker of the House, are really against using military money for it. They say it’s not right because the Constitution gives Congress the power to control how money is spent.
There have been legal issues, too, with groups like the American Civil Liberties Union saying: “Multiple courts have ruled that it is illegal for Trump to pillage military funds for his xenophobic border wall.”
This situation has made it take longer to build the wall and send troops to the border, but it’s not stopping completely.
The reallocation of money and people to bolster border security has sparked discussions about how this might affect the military’s preparedness. Taking out a chunk of $3.8 billion from the defense funds has caused some military gear projects to either stop or get smaller, like buying fewer fighter jets, cargo planes, and drones.
As we keep seeing changes in how we handle security at the border, many are wondering if this approach will work in the long run and if it’s something we can keep doing without breaking the bank.
