Trump’s border wall: What U.S.-Mexico border looks like now

By Kristina Webb

May 2, 2017

| Filed in: Donald Trump, immigration

Congress is preparing to pass a budget deal that President Donald Trump said Tuesday includes “enough money to make a down payment on the border wall” between the U.S. and Mexico.

Barriers exist along some of the 2,000-mile border, but challenges remain in evaluating which sections need to be replaced, built or left alone.

» COMPLETE COVERAGE: Photos, stories, videos, analysis of Donald Trump’s presidency

These photos taken by Getty Images over the past year provide a look at the structures in place now.

In several places along the border, artists have added their own touch to the wall. This segment faces Tijuana, Mexico.

(Can’t see the photos? Click here.)

This mural also appears on the border wall in Tijuana.

Artist Enrique Chiu led part of the mural effort along the border wall between California and Mexico. He told KPBS in San Diego that if Trump’s administration builds more miles of wall, “it’s more canvas for us.”

» Trump’s wall: Why building it would be an engineering marvel

Along the far western edge of the border at Playas de Tijuana, Mexico, the barrier extends into the Pacific Ocean.

The 18-foot steel fence stretches 300 feet into the water and was approved in 2011, according to the Los Angeles Times.

People are seen through the U.S. and Mexico border fence from Border Field State Park on Feb. 4 in San Diego, California. Friends and families gather there at Friends of Friendship Park for several hours on weekends.

Friendship Park is one of the few places along the 2,000-mile border where separated families are allowed to meet. Here, people are seen at the beach in Tijuana on Sept. 25.

View of the U.S.-Mexico border wall as seen on Jan. 25 in San Ysidro, California.

A police officer stands near a sign that directs pedestrians to the U.S. border crossing on Jan. 27 in Tijuana, Mexico.

Cars wait in line to enter the United States at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on Jan. 27 in Tijuana, Mexico.

A pedestrian walks towards the Port of Entry at the U.S.-Mexico border on Jan. 25 in San Ysidro, California.

A U.S. Border Patrol vehicle waits for undocumented immigrants at a fence opening near the U.S.-Mexico border on Jan. 5 near McAllen, Texas.

Border Patrol officials told TV station KRGV in the Rio Grande Valley that some of the gaps are strategic, designed to funnel immigrants into more rural areas. One Texas mayor said the design works.

“Because of the way the structure in these gaps, the traffic is funneled through these gaps opening right now, and they’re heavily patrolled,” Los Indios Mayor Rick Cavasos told KRGV. Cavasos is a former Border Patrol agent supervisor, the TV station reported.

But others aren’t so sure of the gaps’ effectiveness. One homeowner who lives near a gap told KRGV that he was startled once by the sight of “six kids” walking across the border.

A crew works to improve a road along the U.S.-Mexico border on March 16 in Hidalgo, Texas. There has been speculation on where a border wall would be built near the Rio Grande, which forms the border between Texas and Mexico.

U.S. border agents patrol the Rio Grande while searching for undocumented immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border on Jan. 5 near McAllen, Texas.

The Department of Homeland Security said last month that illegal border crossings dropped 30 percent from February to March, while seeing a 64 percent drop from March 2016 to March of this year.

A U.S. border wall tops a levee near Rio Grande at the U.S.-Mexico border on March 15 near La Grulla, Texas.

A border fence stops near the U.S.-Mexico border, formed by the Rio Grande, on Jan. 3 near McAllen, Texas.

Surveillance cameras stand above the border fence between the U.S. and Mexico on Jan. 27 in Tijuana, Mexico.

A Border Patrol vehicle sits along the U.S.-Mexico border wall in San Ysidro, California, on Jan. 25.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection Aerostat surveillance balloon flies near the U.S.-Mexico border on Jan. 5 near McAllen, Texas.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent walks along the U.S.-Mexico border at the Imperial Sand Dunes on Nov. 17 near Felicity, California. The 15-foot “floating fence” sits on the dunes and shifts as the sand moves. Border Patrol agents say they have caught undocumented immigrants and drug smugglers crossing in from Mexico there daily, despite the terrain.

The border fence between the U.S. and Mexico stands at an international bridge between the two countries on March 14 in Hidalgo, Texas.

U.S. Border Patrol agents ride ATVs while monitoring the U.S.-Mexico border fence at the Imperial Sand Dunes on Nov. 17 near Felicity, California.

A barbed-wire fence stands in front of the newer U.S.-Mexico border fence on Oct. 4 in Sunland Park, New Mexico. Border Patrol agents surveil the area to combat undocumented immigrant crossings in the area on the outskirts of El Paso, Texas.

Workers on the U.S. and Mexico side of the border fence talk on Oct. 4 in Sunland Park, New Mexico. The crew was upgrading the chain-link fence in the area, which is on the outskirts of El Paso, Texas.

The border fence stops at a hillside on the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Jacamba Hot Springs, California.