U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), has awarded a contract to construct approximately four miles of new border wall system, consisting of four segments, located just south of Rio Grande City and La Grulla within U.S. Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Sector in Starr County, Texas.
The contract for this project was awarded on June 26, 2019 to Southwest Valley Constructors for the amount of $33,048,700 and construction is anticipated to begin as early as November 2019. This project includes the construction of 18-30 foot tall steel bollards, in addition to road construction, detection technology and lighting installation.
This project is funded by CBP’s Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19) Appropriation. It is not a project undertaken pursuant to the National Emergency Declaration, 10 U.S.C § 284, 10 U.S.C. § 2808, nor does it draw from any other source of funding, including appropriations available to the Department of Defense or Department of Treasury.
This project is not located in any of the communities that require additional consultation with local Starr County elected officials per the FY19 appropriations.
RGV is the busiest Sector in the nation and accounts for more than 40% of the illegal alien apprehensions, more than 43% of the seized marijuana in the southwest border for the fiscal year to date, and is second in seized cocaine. RGV accounts for a large percentage of the southwest border illegal alien apprehensions and narcotic seizures and the majority of its activity is occurring in areas where RGV has limited infrastructure, access and mobility, and technology.
This project 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.
On June 27, 2019, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), began panel installation for approximately 11 miles of new border wall system in place of dilapidated and outdated designs in Calexico, California within U.S. Border Patrol’s (USBP) San Diego Sector. This project will include the construction of 30 foot tall steel bollards and technology improvements.
The construction start for this project was announced earlier this month, along with the new border wall project in Tecate, California. Construction for both of these projects, which total approximately 15 miles, is anticipated to continue into 2020.
These projects are funded by CBP’s Fiscal Year 2018 (FY18) appropriation and are not undertaken pursuant to the National Emergency Declaration, 10 U.S.C § 284, 10 U.S.C. § 2808, nor do they draw from any other source of funding, including appropriations available to the Department of Defense.
On December 20, 2018, on behalf of CBP, USACE awarded a contract to SLSCO Ltd for approximately $127 million to construct approximately 15 miles of new border wall system in place of dilapidated or outdated designs located in Tecate and Calexico, Calif., within USBP’s El Centro and San Diego Sectors.
The San Diego and El Centro Sectors are areas of high illegal entry and are experiencing large numbers of individuals and narcotics being smuggled into the country illegally. The construction of border infrastructure within these project areas will support DHS’s ability to impede and deny illegal border crossings and the drug and human smuggling activities of transnational criminal organizations.
CBP continues to implement President Trump’s Executive Order 13767 – also known as Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements – taking steps to expeditiously plan, design, and construct a physical wall using appropriate materials and technology to most effectively achieve operational control of the southern border.
Information from press releases from US Customs & Border Protection.
