Trump border wall breached thousands of times by smugglers: report

The fragments of border wall built during the Trump administration were physically breached more than 3,000 times between 2019 and 2021.

An investigation by The Washington Post found that Customs and Border Protection spent $2.6 million to repair 3,272 such breaches in that time period.

The Trump administration in 2017 held a design contest to choose the final ideation for former President Trump’s signature construction project, and ultimately built a series of prototypes in a location near San Diego.

Administration officials ultimately chose a design with 18 30-foot-tall steel bollards cemented into the ground, joined at the top by a steel beam.

Upon completion of the first segments, videos quickly surfaced of smuggling groups using common power tools to cut the bollards near the bottom of the wall, easily swinging them out of the way to cross the border.

The Washington Post investigation reveals just how widespread that method of illegal entry has become.

While the Biden administration has redirected its border security efforts toward high tech detection systems and a focus on better control at ports of entry, the idea of a border wall is still a top priority for many Republicans.

At President Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) heckled Biden twice, once to chant “build that wall” as the president touched on immigration and border security.

Biden has drastically reduced border wall funding and halted construction of new segments of wall, even ordering environmental restitution in parts of the border where groundwork was laid but construction unfinished during the Trump administration.