Donald Trump’s Border Wall: A ‘Progress’ Report – NBCNews.com

This undated rendering provided by DarkPulse Technologies Inc. shows a proposed border wall between Mexico and the U.S. The wall proposed by the Arizona-based company would be constructed with ballistic concrete that can withstand tampering or attacks of any kind, according to founder Dennis O'Leary. "You could fire a tank round at it and it will take the impact," he told The Associated Press. AP file

Trump promised voters "a big, beautiful wall." But it might not look like a wall at all. It might look more like the 694 miles of fencing already built.

The CBP proposal requirements indicated that the wall would have to be at least 18 feet high and able to withstand significantly physical force, prevent climbing and tunneling and be aesthetically appealing on the American side.

There's some indication that fencing may indeed rule the day. Touting the funding secured to repair 40 miles of existing border fencing secured in the omnibus-spending bill Congress passed this month, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney showed images of 20-foot cyclone fencing and told reporters this kind of steel fencing might be the "wall" in the end.

"This is the wall that DHS said they wanted, sat in the Oval Office with the president, we talked about bricks and mortar, we talked about concrete, and this is what they wanted," Mulvaney said, noting that the DHS believes see-through fencing is safer for border agents. "It's also half of the cost, so we can build twice as much of it."

This is where things get messy.

Much of the nearly 2,000 mile-border is

"Are people concerned about the federal government coming in and trying to grab their land? Yes, they are." Texas Rep. Will Hurd told NBC News. The Republican congressman's district stretches 820 miles along the southern border. "Private property rights are pretty damn important to us."

The last time the federal government built up fencing along the southern border with the Secure Fence Act of 2006, eminent domain laws were used to buy up a significant amount of land, often at a discount of the land's value.

The Trump administration is revving up for a similar fight. The

"I think

As a businessman, he infamously used it to try and force an elderly widow to sell her property so he could build a parking lot for limousines. He lost the case.

That's the multi-billion-dollar question.

"Walls work, just ask Israel," the president said last week at a joint presser with the Colombian president, in his most recent public remarks about his signature promise to America. The administration is quick to note that illegal border crossings are down significantly this year.

Critics say it's a really expensive way to secure the border, which could be more cheaply done with technology, border agents and fencing.

"My goal is that when we look at border security, we do not have a one size fits all solution, we look at every mile of the border differently than we looked at the one before it," Hurd said.

Existing fencing has not, so far, stopped immigrants from crossing the border. Existing fencing was

(CORRECTION: May 30, 2017, 9:50 a.m.) An earlier version of this article misstated the cost and composition of the proposed border wall. The per-mile cost of the wall ranges from $1 million to $21.6 million for a barrier that includes fending, non-concrete barriers and concrete, not just for concrete.

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Donald Trump's Border Wall: A 'Progress' Report - NBCNews.com