The acting secretary for the Department of Homeland Security is headed to the U.S.-Mexico border to tour new wall construction being installed in Arizona and California during the coronavirus pandemic.
Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf will travel to Arizona Tuesday morning, a week after President Trump visited a mask-making company in the state. Wolf will go on an aerial tour to see new fencing the Trump administration has installed in parts of southern Arizona since 2017, according to a news release from the department.
On Wednesday, Wolf will travel to San Diego to see completed primary and secondary border wall installed under the Trump administration. The wall in southwestern California stretches from 18 to 30 feet in height and replaces shorter scrap metal pieces that were put up in the 1990s. Some parts of the border use double layer fencing to create an “enforcement zone” where, if someone gets over the first fence, they will then be stopped by a second barrier.
Wolf last visited the region in January to celebrate 100 miles of completed fencing. To date, 181 miles of border wall have been put up on the southern border, most of which will replace dilapidated or climbable barriers.
Border wall construction has continued through the public health scare despite stay-at-home orders for more than 200 million nonessential workers nationwide. Nearly 100 Democratic lawmakers in April asked Wolf and other administration officials to suspend construction during the pandemic.
Border Wall System Update:
181 miles completed
190 miles under construction
360 miles under pre-construction pic.twitter.com/6NAh6F9kPU— Chief Rodney Scott (@USBPChief) May 11, 2020
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has funded and is in the process of planning and constructing more than 160 miles of barriers along the Arizona-Mexico border, nearly half of the state’s total border with Mexico.
Wolf, the fifth head of DHS since Trump took office, will also visit the U.S. Border Patrol’s regional coordination center in Tucson and a port of entry in Nogales, Arizona, where commercial vehicles cross.
The acting secretary will also see the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the busiest border crossing in the world.
