Trump wants $18 billion from Congress for border wall

Author: Rebecca Shabad / CBS News
Published:
FILE – This Jan. 25, 2017, file photo shows a truck driving near the Mexico-US border fence, on the Mexican side, separating the towns of Anapra, Mexico and Sunland Park, New Mexico. President Donald Trump will face many obstacles in building his “big, beautiful wall” on the U.S.-Mexico border, including how to pay for it and how to contend with unfavorable geography and the legal battles ahead. (AP Photo/Christian Torres, File)

President Trump is asking Congress to approve $18 billion in funding to finance his proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, CBS News confirmed Friday.

The request, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal and confirmed to CBS by a White House official, would cover construction of the wall over a decade. The official said that it’s a potential ask for lawmakers as they craft border enforcement measures and will be discussed at a Camp David retreat this weekend attended by Mr. Trump, GOP congressional leaders and members of the Cabinet.

An administration official said that the document from the Department of Homeland Security that features the $18 billion request only covers one aspect of Mr. Trump’s immigration priorities and was delivered to Capitol Hill to meet a specific request from negotiating team members.

The WSJ report said that the $18 billion would go toward 700 miles of new replacement barriers, expanding the current 654 miles of barrier to nearly 1,000 miles. It’s unclear if this funding would be part of any governmentwide spending package that’s currently being negotiated in Congress.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, reacted to the report in a letter to House Democrats Friday, “This is alarming. We must all speak out.”

Prototypes for the border wall were completed in October and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said at the time that it would soon begin testing them. The administration may be preparing for the wall, but Congress has not allocated funding for it. Funding has been repeatedly blocked by Democrats whose votes Republicans need for spending bills in the Senate. Spending legislation requires 60 votes to advance in the upper chamber and Republicans only have 52 members.

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