A boundary between the US and Mexico has existed since 1853, but really became controversial following the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Various administrations had already installed 654 miles of fences and barriers, but Trump promised to build a wall that would reach 1,000 miles in length during his time in office as part of his stringent anti-immigration policy. The former president said the project would cost between $8 billion and $12 billion and insisted that Mexico would be the ones to foot the bill. 

The project was not only overbudget, but the $15 billion eventually spent on construction was financed by funds taken from US counter-drug budgets and military construction funding. Mexico did not contribute a single dollar to the work. As of January 2021, the Trump administration had installed 452 miles of wall, but only 47 miles of that stretch were built from scratch – the rest was reconstruction of previously existing barriers.

President Biden will not be picking up from where the Trump administration left off, having promised not to construct “another foot” of the wall while in office, although he has said he will not deconstruct any part of the existing wall. This pledge will make him the first president since George H. W. Bush not to add to the barrier and will leave this controversial US megaproject incomplete for at least another four years.

Now click or scroll through some other infamous big-budget projects that divided opinion.