UNITED STATES−The United States Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) in partnership with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) awarded a contract to construct approximately 15 miles of the border wall within the Rio Grande Valley Sector in Starr County, Texas. U.S. Customs and Border Protection made the announcement via their website.
The project includes a 30 foot tall steel bollard wall, lighting, all-weather roads, enforcement cameras, and technology to create an enforcement zone. The construction is expected to begin in early 2020, once the land is procured where there is not an existing wall.
Southwest County Constructors Co. won the bid valued at $179,580,000. Plans for the wall include four non-contiguous segments, which will connect to other border wall segments in Roma, Rio Grande City, Escobares, La Grulla, and “the census-designated place of Salineño, Texas.”
The border wall funding for this project came from appropriations by CBP’s Fiscal Years of 2018 and 2019.
The CBP reported that the Rio Grande Valley is the busiest sector in the nation that accounts for 25 percent of all apprehensions of illegal immigrants, and is number one in the nation for the seizure of cocaine, methamphetamines, and marijuana.
According to reports, the majority of the apprehensions and drugs seized have been in areas with no infrastructure and very limited access, and technology.
These efforts are part of CBP putting into action President Trumps Executive Order 13767 signed into law on January 25, 2017.
A group against building the wall and blocking the view in Roma, TX, held a No Border Wall planned meeting at the McAllen Creative Incubator in August 2019, where the attempt to build infrastructure in the region transpired in 2014.
Video footage depicts CBP agents speaking out about the security at the border in the Rio Grande Valley.
