Commissioner Rodney Scott said the main wall will extend from San Diego to the Gulf of Mexico, with additional barriers and surveillance systems expected to follow in 2028.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said Tuesday that the primary wall along the southern border is expected to be completed by the end of 2027, as the Trump administration continues construction aimed at curbing illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
Speaking at a Center for Immigration Studies conference in Washington, Scott said the primary border wall will run from San Diego to Texas near the Gulf of Mexico, though he noted that a few gaps will remain where officials determined construction was unnecessary or impractical.
Scott said the “primary border wall … will be done by the end of 2027,” adding that there are a “couple of gaps.”
“The only places we’re not building a border wall is places where we’ve made a conscious decision that we don’t need it,” Scott said.
He pointed to Big Bend National Park as an example, describing it as a “super remote area” with “some very, very high cliffs” that make wall construction unnecessary.
Scott said additional border infrastructure, including a secondary wall and a barrier in the Rio Grande, is expected to be completed by July or August 2028. He said the physical barriers will be supported by electronic surveillance and other systems.
The southern border wall was one of President Donald Trump’s central campaign promises during his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump has said the wall is intended to reduce illegal crossings and drug smuggling into the United States.
Scott said the wall is an important enforcement tool but will not fully stop illegal crossings or narcotics trafficking by itself. He said smugglers are using tunnels and drones to work around border defenses.
“That is their business model, and drones definitely make it easier,” Scott said, adding, “They’re also smuggling narcotics across with drones.”
On the first day of his second term in January 2025, Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of War and Department of Homeland Security secretaries to “take all appropriate action to deploy and construct temporary and permanent physical barriers to ensure complete operational control of the southern border.”
Congress later approved $46.5 billion for border wall construction through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July 2025.
CBP has reported sharp declines in illegal crossings in several areas. In the Big Bend Sector, apprehensions of people crossing the border illegally fell 74% in fiscal 2025 compared with fiscal 2023. The agency also said autonomous surveillance towers have significantly reduced traffic.
Last month, CBP released data marking one year of zero releases at the southern border. The agency said apprehensions of illegal immigrants had dropped to their lowest levels in more than three decades.
Border Patrol recorded 8,943 apprehensions along the southwest border in April, according to CBP. The agency said that was a 94% decline from the monthly average under the Biden administration and 96% below the December 2023 peak.
“The U.S. Border Patrol released zero illegal aliens into our country again this month, unlike April 2024, when more than 68,000 were released under President [Joe] Biden,” Scott said in a May statement.
The administration has also made deportations a major priority. White House border czar Tom Homan said in a May interview that the administration was working to increase removals and that about 800,000 illegal aliens had been removed from the United States since Trump returned to office.
Scott’s comments indicate the administration expects the main wall system to be in place before the end of 2027, with secondary barriers and additional enforcement infrastructure continuing into 2028.
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