A private crowdfunding initiative by a collection of President Trump’s supporters is trying to raise $10 million to continue building a wall on the southern border and is trying to entice donors with the promise of putting their name on the physical barrier.
We Build the Wall Inc., founded by veteran Brian Kolfage, said Monday it will reward financial supporters by putting their name on either bricks or plaques attached to the steel bollard fence.
“Donors will have the chance to claim their piece of history with etched monument bricks, customized bollard dedications and other recognition along the border wall,” the organization wrote in a press release.
The group, composed of immigration hard-liners, said it will start taking donations at its “Wall-a-Thon” fundraiser at the site of its newly constructed 2,300-foot-long fence in Sunland Park, New Mexico, Monday through Wednesday. The group’s board members, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, are expected to be at the multiday event.
The money raised will go toward building more barrier along the other side of a mountain the group has already built on, according to a source with firsthand knowledge of the project.
Kolfage said he wants to raise $10 million on top of the $20 million raised as part of a failed GoFundMe fundraiser launched this year.
Kolfage created a crowdfunding campaign in December with the intent of raising $1 billion for border wall construction following the Trump administration’s inability to obtain $25 billion for the project last December. Kolfage vowed to return everyone’s money if the project did not reach $1 billion, but did not do so. It topped out at $22.9 million this year.
The more than 330,000 people who donated were informed by GoFundMe that they were eligible for a refund because Kolfage had changed the terms of the fundraiser, moving it to a different fund.
Kolfage previously ran a since-shuttered Facebook “news” page known for spreading conspiracy theories. He was also sued in 2017 after he reported the wrong name of the suspect involved in the fatal car accident during a white supremacy rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, according to NBC News. But We Build the Wall spokesman Andrew Marsh on Monday denied Kolfage was sued in 2017.
Weeks ahead of the crowdfunding campaign’s failure, Kolfage launched We Build the Wall Inc., a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization. Conservatives who have been criticized as anti-immigrant were appointed to the organization’s board. The money from the crowdfunding campaign was then funneled to the new outside organization.
About the same time this spring, Bannon and fellow board members held rallies in Midwestern cities to raise money for the organization, though they have not shared how much they raised in addition to the crowdfunding dollars.
Tommy Fisher, president and CEO of Fisher Industries, was paid to install the 2,300-foot-long fence and said it came in about $7 million after taxes. Fisher got involved in the project in April after Kobach attended a construction demonstration in Coolidge, Arizona.
Fisher said the organization signed a contract for him to build the half-mile portion of steel fence over the course of eight days, but it took longer because the city of Sunland Park shut down construction for two days. The suspension was lifted Wednesday.
Despite the board’s connections to Trump, organizers have insisted the project is not affiliated with the White House.
