Here’s What Presidential Candidates Have Said About Expanding the Texas-Mexico Border Wall

Here’s What Presidential Candidates Have Said About Expanding the Texas-Mexico Border Wall
In this Sept. 15, 2015, photo, Othal Brand Jr., general manager of Hidalgo County Water Improvement District, walks along a gate in the border fence that run along the water plant, in Hidalgo, Texas. While 1,254 miles of border occur in Texas, the state has only about 100 miles of wall. AP Photo/Eric Gay
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Several candidates for the presidency in 2016 have proposed building more border wall along the nearly 2,000 mile frontier with Mexico to keep people from crossing into the U.S. illegally.

Here is what they have to say about a border wall.

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DONALD TRUMP

Trump has been the most outspoken about building a wall, and insists he'll make Mexico pay for it.

“We’re going to do a wall. We’re going to create a border,” he said during the third Republican debate in October. Trump also made reference to the Great Wall of China, and claimed that “Mexico is going to pay for the wall.”

On his website, Trump reiterates his assertion that “there must be a wall across our southern border.” In November, after eight Syrian Christians sought asylum and turned themselves in to officials in Laredo, Texas, Trump tweeted, “WE NEED A BIG & BEAUTIFUL WALL”.

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TED CRUZ

The Texas senator pledges on his website to “build a wall that works,” and to “complete the wall,” though he offers no specifics as to how he would do so.

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MARCO RUBIO

The Florida senator says the most vulnerable sectors of the southwest border must be secured, according to his website. During the Republican debate in September, in response to a question, he said that “we must secure ourborder, the physical border, with a wall, absolutely.”

In this Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015, photo, a man mows his property along the border fence, in Brownsville, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
In this Thursday, Sept. 17, 2015, photo, a man mows his property along the border fence, in Brownsville, Texas. AP Photo/Eric Gay