President Donald Trump signed a deal in the early hours of Friday morning that got the government back up and running, and part of that deal is believed to have included money for the wall along the US-Mexico border, officials told Reuters.
Trump has stated his desire to ‘build a wall’ on repeat for the past two years, both before and after taking office, but the truth is there’s already a wall along our southern border, and it has evolved quite a bit over time.
If Trump gets the $3 billion he’s asking for, though, portions of it will be made taller and stronger, possibly modeled after one of four completed 30-foot-tall concrete prototypes that were created by construction companies vying for the potential job, last year.
Trump has stated his desire to ‘build a wall’ on repeat for the past two years, both before and after taking office, but the truth is there’s already a wall along our southern border, and it has evolved quite a bit over time; US border guards (right) checking Mexicans entering America in May 1920
The earmarked funds are anticipated to go toward purchasing private land in the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas and advance purchases of steel, the official, who briefed a small group of reporters on condition of anonymity, said on Thursday.
The administration hopes to build 60 miles (96 km) of new steel bollard fencing along the border with 2018 funding and an additional 64 miles (103 km) with 2019 funding.
This is all part of Trump’s plan to limit immigration into this country, which he has already taken steps to do by setting the wheels in motion for the elimination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
A line of cars is seen here conveying Mexicans over the border into California on March 21, 1929; The fence in the foreground is the border; the line of cars is in the main street of Mexicali
Mexicans are seen here entering the United States through a turn-style at a US immigration station in El Paso, Texas in 1937
DACA, which has allowed nearly 800,000 immigrants who came to the US as children to stay and work in the country, is set to begin being phased out in March if Congress fails to act.
But Trump is not the first President to attempt to tighten border security since the US signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
It did take a little while, though, before the federal government started being more formal about it.
Two armed American border guards deter a group of immigrants from attempting to illegally cross a river from Mexico into the United States in 1948
A view of the Sigma Pi Sorority crossing under the Mexican boarder sign to Tijuana Mexican in Calexico, California on March 15, 1950
Mexican women stand by the river, on American territory at Rio Grande, in the 1950s
Mexico established its independence, shortly after the US did, in 1824. But it wasn’t until 100 years later, on May 28, 1924, that Congress established the US Border Patrol.
The agency was created as part of the Immigration Bureau in the Department of Labor through the Labor Appropriation Act of 1924.
And so began the evolution of how the United States went about policing immigration into America from Mexico.
Mexican immigrants are seen here near the border of the United States in the 1950s
Felipe Ramirez-Perez, a six-foot-tall Mexican is caught as he tries to sneak into the United States illegally under the hood of an auto, caught by immigration inspector Richard McCowan, on March 11, 1952 in San Diego, California
Border crossing inspections initially started out as gentle pat-downs, where Mexicans would enter the US through wire fences.
As the Great Depression began its onset, the US inititiated a repatriation program in 1930. This provided Mexican immigrants with free train fare back to Mexico, as fears grew over scarcity of employment.
By 1937, more order was implemented, and people were made to line up and pass through turn-styles before entering the country.
Throughout the 1930s, hundreds of thousands of Mexican immigrants, many of those farm workers, were deported back to their native country.
The 1950s still saw more casual interaction, with photos showing border patrol guards face-to-face with would-be immigrants in wide open spaces.
A border guard checks passes of Mexicans entering the United States near Nogales, Mexico, in 1962
In 1954, as the US saw undocumented immigration rise after World War II, the government launched a program (then-called Operation Wetback, after a derogatory term referring to immigrants that arrived in the US by water), which resulted in the deporting of nearly 4 million Mexican immigrants.
Undocumented immigration into the US increased after WWII, so in 1954, the government launched Operation Wetback, a program that deported nearly 4 million Mexican immigrants.
Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1965, which ended caps based on country on the number of immigrants allowed into the US.
The act’s goal was to reunite immigrant families and attracting skilled labor to the US.
US Customs agents are seen here patrolling the border in 1993
Stopped on Humphreys Road about half a mile north of the Mexico border, Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Trei Rasmusson opens the trunk of a car with two men inside, on September 22, 1995 in Tecate, California
Pedestrians and cars enter Mexico with ease in San Ysidro, CA on September 19, 2001 but may be delayed as much as three to six hours while crossing from Mexico to the US because of increased security checks in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks on the east coast
It was in 1994 when the government began to beef us border wall appearances, in response to public belief that large numbers of undocumented immigrants and drug dealers were crossing the US-Mexico border.
The government began placing corrugated steel walls along the border around that time, measuring 8-10 10 feet tall.
Even then, though, the border wall in some places was would have been easily climbed, if no one were waiting on the other side.
US Immigration inspector Guierrmo Reza watches a monitor display a picture of a motorist from Mexico who has swiped his card to pass through an automated commuter lane at the Otay Mesa border crossing on January 14, 2003
A child lies in a cut away dashboard of a vehicle where he was discovered trying to be smuggled into the US from Mexico provided by Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS); The photo is undated, but may be from around early 2003
Thousands of cars line up to enter the United States from Mexico at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Ysidro, California on February 20, 2003
Throughout the history of people attempting to cross the US-Mexico border illegally, it’s been done in many ways.
A common stereotype is to hear of people hiding in compartments, out of view, in vehicles.
Photo evidence exists of this method being put into practice, for as long as cars have been driving over the border.
A man sweeps the street next to the US-Mexico border fence between Mexicali, Mexico and Calexico, California on March 25, 2005
A federal agent with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement stands guard in a tunnel found along the US-Mexico border at a warehouse in Otay Mesa, California on January 30, 2006
Brian Stanley (right) and Katie Resendiz (left), volunteers on patrol with the humanitarian group No More Deaths, search for migrants in distress on a trail used by those entering the US illegally from Mexico on June 16, 2006 in Pima County, Arizona
A border patrol vehicle drags the sand to make any new footprints of border crossers more visible along a recently constructed section of the controversial US-Mexico border fence expansion on previously pristine desert sands on March 14, 2009 between Yuma, Arizona and Calexico, California
As technology improves, so do border measures.
In the late 1090s, border inspection stations started using an automated program, called SENTRI, for pre-screened motorists.
This was intend to speed up the crossing process for those willing to have their information entered into the system.
People enjoy a late afternoon near the US-Mexico border fence which ends in the Pacific Ocean on September 25, 2016 in Tijuana, Mexico
People wait in line to enter the United States at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on January 27, 2017 in Tijuana, Mexico
A view is seen here of the US-Mexico border wall on January 25, 2017 in San Ysidro, California
Today, the wall is cement in some places, topped with barbed wire in others, and extended out into the ocean on the west coast.
What the will happen with the US-Mexico border wall inthe coming years remains to be seen.
The exact terms of the funding bill signed into law by Trump on Friday are expected to be made public on Monday.
A view is seen here of the US-Mexico border wall on January 25, 2017 in Tijuana, Mexico