US Congress to approve $1.375 bn for border wall
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Washington: Republican Party sources have said that the US Congress is expected to pass allocation of $1.375 billion for a wall along the southern border as part of the $1.4 trillion spending bill for the next fiscal year.
According to the sources, Congress will approve the funds on Monday and the White House also hinted on Sunday evening that President Donald Trump would sign it, reports The Hill news website.
The figure is the same that Democrats and Republican lawmakers had agreed upon in a compromise spending bill last year. However, Trump, who had mooted building such a wall and insisted on the project as a means of preventing immigration, had demanded $2 billion for the project.
As of December 2020, 681 km of wall has been built, all but about 14 km being replacement of existing outdated or dilapidated barriers.
Building a "big, beautiful wall" between the US and Mexico was the signature promise of Trump's 2016 election campaign, the BBC said in a report.
A concrete barrier, according to the President, would serve to stop what he described as a flow of illegal immigrants and drugs over the border.
Before Trump took office, there was just over 1,000 km of barrier along the southern border - made up of barricades and anti-vehicle fencing to stop pedestrians.
(IANS with minor edits)