The Trump administration has proposed spending $18 billion over 10 years to significantly extend the border wall with Mexico, providing one of its most detailed blueprints of how the president hopes to carry out a signature campaign pledge.

If you could have 300 extra miles of border wall in 2027, but you had to give the "DREAMers" amnesty now to do it, would you? For President Trump, it's not a tough call .

The proposal by Customs and Border Protection calls for 316 miles (505 kilometers) of additional barrier by September 2027, bringing total coverage to 970 miles (1,552 kilometers), or nearly half the border, according to a U.S. official with direct knowledge of the matter. It also calls for 407 miles (651 kilometers) of replacement or secondary fencing[.] ... Homeland Security [s]ecretary Kirstjen Nielsen told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the wall would be "first and foremost" in any package that includes new protections for DACA recipients. She also said the administration want[s] to close "loopholes" on issues that include handling asylum claims and local police working with immigration authorities.

Bloomberg News has some excellent graphics about our southern border. The first is the number of illegals arrested in each zone.

The graphic above shows the area where we have an actual border fence.

In 2006, George W. Bush signed the Secure Fence Act, which ultimately led to construction of 653 miles of reinforced fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. The bulk of the existing 653 miles of fencing took about three years to erect, but some of the more difficult terrain increased that timeline.

What have we learned from this?

1) We already have 653 miles of fencing on a 2,000-mile border.

2) The 653 miles of fencing was built in three years. Trump wants to build his 300 miles of additional fencing and 400 miles of reinforced fencing in ten years. Even if Trump's wall or fence is more substantial than George W. Bush's, that seems to be a relaxed time frame.

3) On the other hand, Trump is right to want to reinforce existing fencing; the area with the most illegal entries, the Rio Grande, already has a fence, which is obviously ineffectual, since there were 138,000 arrests last year in that area alone. Similarly, if you compare the two graphics above, the biggest problem areas seem to be the areas that have fencing rather than the areas that don't. Of course, if the fencing truly becomes effective, illegals may shift their efforts to areas without fencing, which is why we need more than 300 additional miles of fencing.

If these reports are true, it is disappointing that President Trump would trade amnesty now for border security in ten years. Trump also wants to end chain migration, reduce legal immigration, and end sanctuary cities. Those are more powerful inducements to make a deal rather than this casual plan to reinforce the border piecemeal over a period of many years.

Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.