AUSTIN, TEXAS — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials announced the agency has awarded a $145 million contract to build about six miles of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border — manifesting a main plank of the political platform of Donald Trump, who’s taken to further demonize refugees in the days ahead of the midterm elections to energize his base.
The CBP made the announcement on the construction contract on Friday. The agency is sharing the cost for the first six-mile section of border wall with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, officials said. The small wall section will be built in the Rio Grande Valley, and was funded in CBP’s fiscal year appropriation, officials said.
The contract for this project, referred to by CBP as RGV-03, actually was awarded on Oct. 31, but the announcement was made just this past weekend. Galveston-based Slsco Ltdwon the bid, with plans to start construction in February 2019, according to the press advisory.
CBP officials described the project, which includes the construction and installation of tactical infrastructure including a reinforced concrete levee wall to the height of the existing levee, 18 feet tall steel bollards installed on top of the concrete wall, and vegetation removal along a 150-foot enforcement zone throughout the approximately six miles of levee wall system.
Moreover, officials said, the enforcement zone will include detection technology, lighting, video surveillance, and an all-weather patrol road parallel to the levee wall. This project lies within the McAllen Station area of responsibility in Hidalgo County, Texas.
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“The RGV Sector remains an area of high illegal cross border activity,” CBP officials claimed, writing in the press advisory. ” In FY 2017, USBP apprehended over 137,000 illegal aliens, and seized approximately 260,000 pounds of marijuana and approximately 1,192 pounds of cocaine in the RGV Sector. Once constructed, this levee wall system will serve as a persistent impediment to transnational criminal organizations, while still allowing river access for property owners, other federal/state/local officials, local emergency responders, and USBP.”
Officials confirmed the impetus of construction came from Trump orders: “CBP continues to implement President Trump’s Executive Order 13767 – also known as Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements – and continues to take steps to expeditiously plan, design, and construct a physical wall using appropriate materials and technology to most effectively achieve complete operational control of the southern border.”
Trump has made his envisioned wall along the southern border a main plank of his political platform starting when he launched his presidential bid, when he labeled Latin American immigrants as criminals and rapists. But while the tactic has galvanized his base, a recent poll shows a majority of Texans oppose border wall construction.
Aside from its aesthetic and environmental impacts on the Texas landscape, some oppose the plan because of its massive cost. Estimates place the price tag of building a wall along the nearly 2,000-mile southern border at between $15 billion to $25 billion.
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