State to spend $8 billion to pay for border wall

The White House said Friday it would spend $1.8 billion on the border wall it has been developing, with the Department of Homeland Security acting as a liaison with state and local officials.
The administration said it would use $8.2 billion of the total to pay contractors to construct the wall.
The total would cover the $8 million a state would have to spend on building it.
President Donald Trump has said the wall will cost $20 billion to $25 billion, with $7 billion to be funded by the federal government.
The president has also suggested he would like the government to pay more for the wall to make it more affordable for the U.S. taxpayer.
The new spending proposal, released Friday, was among the first concrete steps in a major push to secure the border, a central goal of Trump’s first term.
The border is the nation’s most heavily trafficked border, with more than 12 million people crossing into Mexico each day.
The White Hill, Texas, border is one of the busiest areas of the U-S-2 highway system and has become a flashpoint in Trump’s feud with Mexico.
The wall would be constructed using existing infrastructure at existing U.s. borders.
It would cost between $10 billion and $15 billion, and could cost $10.6 billion or more to complete, according to the White House.
The funding would be the second major federal investment in the border area this year, following a $5 billion investment in infrastructure.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration also announced $1 billion in grants to help local governments construct and operate the wall along the U.-S-26 border.