The Trump administration awarded a $175 million contract to a construction company to build 15 miles of border wall in an area of southeastern Texas where no barrier exists, according to the federal agency overseeing wall projects.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Monday announced plans to install four noncontiguous sections of 30-foot-tall barriers in Starr County, Texas, which is located in the Rio Grande Valley region. CBP, housed under the Department of Homeland Security, and the Army Corps of Engineers selected Randy Kinder Excavating Inc. for the job. The company is based in Missouri, and its website states that it has completed 200 federal projects over 40 years.
The forthcoming wall construction will start this year “pending availability of real estate, in locations where no barriers currently exist,” CBP said in a media release. A 30-foot steel bollard wall will go up within Escobares, La Grullas, Rio Grande City, Roma, and Salineno. The slatted style of fence allows Border Patrol agents to see through to the other side and has been used in other border projects.
The $175,577,000 price tag includes paved roads, lighting, cameras, and other technology that CBP did not specify. The money for the project is from congressional funding in the government’s 2018 and 2019 budgets.
Fence projects have ranged from 18 to 30 feet in height. CBP picked this location to put up fencing near the Rio Grande, the natural boundary between most of Mexico and the United States, because of the region’s high rate of arrests. Since the start of fiscal 2010 through October 2019, 25% of people arrested after illegally crossing from Mexico into the U.S. were apprehended in the Rio Grande Valley, one of nine Border Patrol-designated regions on the southern border. Agents in the region have seized more cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamine there than any other part of the southern border.
“These projects will improve the RGV Sector’s ability to impede and deny illegal border crossings and the drug and human smuggling activities of transnational criminal organizations,” CBP said in its release. The agency said it spoke with local county officials about the project and design ahead of Monday.
The Trump administration has completed 139 miles of border fence projects, with 200 miles under construction and 414 in the planning phase, Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott announced Monday.
Border Wall System update:
▫️ 139 miles completed
▫️ 200 miles under construction
▫️ 414 miles in pre-construction pic.twitter.com/qeZXe3dNYt— Chief Rodney Scott (@USBPChief) March 16, 2020
