Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem introduced the constructing of seven miles of latest border wall in Arizona as a part of the administration’s efforts to “make America protected once more.”
Noem’s announcement, coming in a brief video posted to her X account, marks the start of extra border wall development alongside the southern border throughout the second Trump administration. The DHS mentioned in a press launch Friday that U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) had awarded the primary contract of President Donald Trump’s second time period to Granite Development Co. for greater than $70 million, which can end in seven miles of latest border wall within the Rio Grande Valley Sector, in accordance with Noem’s announcement.
“Everyone, I’m right here in Arizona, and proper at this spot, you may see the place the border wall ends,” Noem mentioned whereas standing alongside the border, donning a CBP hat and jacket. “As of at present, we’re beginning 7 new miles of development, we’re going to proceed to make America protected once more.”
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The brand new wall can be paid for by way of CBP’s Fiscal 12 months 2021 funds, per DHS.
Trump’s predecessor, former President Joe Biden, moved on his first day in workplace to halt all border wall development alongside the U.S.-Mexico border. In late 2023, development on roughly 20 miles of border obstacles in South Texas was allowed to start underneath Biden, for the reason that cash had already been appropriated by Congress throughout Trump’s first administration.
Below Trump’s first time period, roughly 458 miles of major and secondary obstacles had been constructed, per CBP information. This included elements of the present wall that had been dilapidated and wanted to get replaced.
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President Donald Trump participates in a ceremony commemorating the two hundredth mile of border wall on the worldwide border with Mexico in San Luis, Arizona, on June 23, 2020. (SAUL LOEB/AFP by way of Getty Photos)
Vice President JD Vance mentioned earlier this month throughout a go to to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas that he was underneath the assumption that Trump hoped to construct a wall throughout each mile of the southern border by the tip of his time period in 2029.
“I feel the president’s hope is that by the tip of the time period we construct the complete border wall,” the vp advised reporters throughout a press convention.
“And, after all, that’s the bodily construction — the border wall itself — however we even heard at present, there are such a lot of good technological instruments, so many nice synthetic intelligence-enabled applied sciences” that can be used to safe the border, Vance added.
ICE brokers arrested seven unlawful immigrants throughout a workforce operation raid. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
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The variety of unlawful migrant “gotaways,” or the variety of profitable unlawful crossings, that are recorded utilizing cameras and different surveillance strategies, has dropped as a lot as 90% since Trump took workplace, in accordance with some estimates based mostly on numbers reported by Fox Information’ Invoice Melugin final week.
Based on the numbers reported by Melugin, border brokers have been recognizing a mean of 77 “gotaways” per day, whereas throughout the peak of the immigration disaster underneath Biden, that quantity reached as a lot as 1,800 per day, in accordance with studies.
