Smugglers sawed into new portions of President Trump’s border wall nearly 20 times in the San Diego area in a one-month span, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s records.
The documents, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request by the Washington Post, showed that 18 breaches were made between Sept. 27 and Oct. 27. Five of the incidents occurred in a single day.
CBP said it costs an average of $620 per incident to make repairs.
It’s unclear whether the one-month time frame is representative of how often breaches happen in the new portion of the barrier or whether that time frame is an outlier.
The agency said the sawing incidents took place during smuggling attempts that were not necessarily successful in getting migrants or narcotics into the United States illegally.
“Transnational criminal organizations are an adaptive adversary — regardless of materials, nothing is impenetrable if given unlimited time and tools,” CBP said in a statement.
CBP noted that once the wall is completed, it will include “technology, roads and an enforcement zone.”
“Taken together, these capabilities maximize how long agents have to respond to attempted crossings — increasing the time they have from mere seconds to minutes, hours or even days depending on the adversary’s methods,” the agency said.
“When complete, San Diego Sector will have the most advanced border wall system USBP has ever deployed,” the agency added.
The administration has completed 158 miles of new barrier as of this month, most of which has replaced smaller, older fencing.
