Originally Published in CNN
Geneva Sands and Priscilla Alvarez - October 29, 2020
Washington (CNN) Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, flanked by several senior department officials, hyped the administration's efforts to construct hundreds of miles of wall along the US-Mexico border while lavishing praise on President Donald Trump less than a week before Election Day.
Thursday's news conference in McAllen, Texas, is the latest in a string of media events in which Department of Homeland Security officials have touted the administration's immigration policies as successes and delivered veiled criticisms of the Biden campaign's proposals.
Just last week, Wolf traveled to Arizona, where he also delivered a full-throated defense of Trump's immigration record.
Standing alongside the concrete and bollard border wall in Texas, Wolf doubled down on those claims Thursday, echoing the President's border security message and citing the wall as critical to it.
"The many miles of border wall system exist because of the will and vision of President Trump, and the dedication and hard work of the men and women of CBP and the Army Corps of Engineers," Wolf said, referring to Customs and Border Protection.
Building a border wall remains a signature campaign issue for Trump, who claimed at a rally in Arizona this week that under his administration the southern border was the "most secure" in US history.
"We built almost 400 miles," Trump said Wednesday, referring to the wall. The administration is trying to reach 450 miles by year's end.
Wolf didn't specify the exact number of miles that had been constructed Thursday, saying only that it was "nearly 400." While most of the new wall construction has replaced barriers already along the southwest border, the new construction is taller (18 to 30 feet) and in many cases bolstered by surveillance systems and access points.
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