President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with a group of sheriffs from around the country before leaving the White House in Washington, Monday, Feb. 11, 2019, for a trip to El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Monday presented the border wall as a work in progress, hailing the start of a "big, big portion" with much more coming soon. That's a hefty exaggeration from a president who has yet to see an extra mile of barrier completed since he took office.
With another possible government shutdown looming, and illegal immigration still at the heart of the budget dispute, Trump is pulling out the stops to portray his proposed wall as essential to public safety. As he's done repeatedly, Trump also defied the record in claiming that the wall that Congress has refused to pay for is rapidly coming together anyway.
Trump addressed the subject at a White House meeting with sheriffs before leaving for El Paso, Texas, for an evening rally. A look at a few of his comments:
TRUMP, on preparations for his rally: "We have a line that is very long already. I mean, you see what's going on. And I understand our competitor's got a line, too, but it's a tiny little line."
THE FACTS: That's not true. His comment came about four hours before his El Paso rally and a competing one nearby, led by Beto O'Rourke, a prospective Democratic presidential contender. The gathering for both events was small at the time. People were standing around in a dusty wind, not so much lined up.
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TRUMP: "We've actually started a big, big portion of the wall today at a very important location, and it's going to go up pretty quickly over the next nine months. That whole area will be finished. It's fully funded ... and we're going to have a lot of wall being built over the next period of time."
THE FACTS: There's less going on here than his words convey. Construction is getting started on merely 14 miles (23 kilometers) of extended barrier, approved by Congress about a year ago in an appropriation that also authorized money to renovate and strengthen some existing fencing. The extension will be in Texas' Rio Grande Valley. That's not a "big, big portion" of the grand project he promised in his campaign and countless times since — a wall that, combined with existing fencing and natural barriers, would seal the nearly 2,000-mile (3,200-kilomete) border with Mexico.
The fight with Democrats in Congress now is over his demand for a $5.7 billion down payment on the wall. That money would pay for a little over 200 miles (320 kilometers) of new barrier. Democrats have refused to approve anything close to that for extended barrier construction.
Trump also promised in the campaign that he would make Mexico pay for the wall, which it refused to do.
He inherited over 650 miles (1,050 kilomleters) of border barrier from previous administrations.
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Associated Press writers Will Weissert in El Paso, Texas, Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Kevin Freking and Hope Yen in Washington contributed to this report.
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