Trump’s border wall could become a cheaper fence

President Trump wants a wall along the border with Mexico, CNN has been told by multiple sources within the agencies involved in building, paying for and enforcing this barrier.

President Trump has been looking at various blueprints with his advisers, a senior administration official told CNN. He could ultimately insist on a concrete wall stretching across the entire border, as he has promised. It would be a far bigger and a vastly more expensive project, and any plan would need to be sent to Congress for funding approval.

The latest plans involve adding 177 new miles of fencing, and replacing 272 miles of already built fence, according to one high level source with knowledge of the project. That means the total barrier between the United States and Mexico would cover 831 total miles of a nearly 2,000 mile border.

The final decision on the barrier will be up to Trump, and to the Congress which has to appropriate money to pay for it, but a concrete barrier may be the least likely outcome. A concrete wall would be more costly but CNN reports on another, more practical reason some would prefer a fence:

One senior U.S. Border Patrol official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told CNN that it’s crucial to be able to see through a border barrier. “I’m not calling it a wall because we are talking about a fence that we can look through. That’s what we need.”

The problem with the fence, of course, is that visibility works both ways. It may give border patrol a view of what is coming but it also allows people looking to cross illegally a chance to scout a location where border patrol isn’t waiting nearby.

Still not even half, according to these sources. As for the cost, if President Trump accepts this recommendation, it will be about $5-billion, according to sources.