U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced Tuesday night that the Rio Grande Valley sector of the southern border, where more illegal immigrants cross from Mexico than any other sector, is set to build another three miles of “wall.”
CBP said in a statement that a $43,000,000 contract was awarded to Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. for the construction of the barrier, which is made up steel bars ranging between 18 and 30 feet. Construction will take place on federally owned land and is scheduled to begin in August.
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Money for the project comes from funds already appropriated to CBP for fiscal year 2019 and is not tied to President Trump’s national emergency declaration.
Depending on what you consider “wall” (a sign of how stupid the debate over border security has become), Trump has put up somewhere between 25 and 35 miles of new barrier on the border. Most of it is in New Mexico and Texas.
Yes, this is “wall” and no, it’s not going to make some of the immigration hardliners on the Right happy. I saw this exact type of barrier earlier this year when I visited the Rio Grande Valley sector, and border agents there told me it’s immensely effective in deterring and apprehending illegal immigrants.
More wall is good wall, and in some spots a small length of it can go a lot further than you’d think.
[Also read: Trump’s new border wall slogan: ‘Build a wall and crime will fall’]
