Construction restarted on a border wall near the San Ysidro Land Port of Entry on the U.S.-Mexico border in California on Jan. 22, followed by border wall construction and reinforcement work beginning near El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 31.
President Donald Trump said during his presidential campaign he would finish construction of a border wall that began during his first term. This new work, however, is using funds appropriated and contracts awarded during his first administration.
In California, new wall sections with “anti-climb” features are being built in areas that either never had a barrier or only had older fencing. They are being built using 2018 border wall appropriations and contracts held by contractor Fisher Sand & Gravel. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also sent personnel to the area around Friendship Park near the San Ysidro Land Port of Entry where new wall sections have been under construction for nearly two weeks.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it would complete the project using only fiscal 2018 funding as other funds from 2021 and 2022 were not specified for the California portions of the wall.
President Trump’s national emergency declaration “…directs the Dept. of Homeland Security to take all appropriate action to deploy and construct temporary and permanent physical barriers to ensure complete operational control of the southern border of the United States,” according to CBP.
“CBP is working to cl
