The Trump administration awarded a contract for the construction of new border wall segments along the Texas-Mexico border. This is the first such award of the president’s second term.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) awarded Granite Construction Company the border wall contract using funding appropriated in the agency’s 2021 fiscal year budget.
According to CBP, more than $70 million was awarded to Granite Construction Company to construct approximately seven miles of new border wall in Hidalgo County, Texas, within the U.S. Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Sector. This contract was awarded by taking advantage of funds previously allotted for border wall construction under CBP’s Fiscal Year 2021 budget.
The seven miles of border wall panels will close critical openings in the wall that were left incomplete due to canceled contracts during the Biden Administration. More than four years ago, on Biden’s first day in office, the Biden Administration paused all projects involving border wall construction by executive order. As Breitbart Texas reported, the pause on construction of the border wall costs taxpayers about six million dollars per day while construction sites sit idle, according to a senior Department of Homeland Security official.
The pause, initiated in January 2021, lasted almost four months and cost taxpayers nearly $700 million, according to the DHS source. The pause in construction required contractors to remain on the job site along with all equipment and materials until a final decision was reached. The border wall construction employees were only allowed to perform duties required to keep the worksite safe but received full pay during the delay period.
Although a significant amount of material bought and paid for by taxpayers was left to rot at job sites across the southwest border before being sold for pennies on the dollar for scrap, the State of Texas ultimately purchased some material for border wall projects. In an exclusive report by Breitbart Texas, a video taken in Eagle Pass showed just one of several state-funded border wall projects undertaken by Texas Governor Greg Abbott using the surplus federal materials.
Abbott spoke with Breitbart Texas then, saying, “The influx across the border is out of control, and the Biden Administration has shown that it is not going to step up and do its job. On the issue of increasing border crossings,” Abbott added, “Amidst reports of even more people coming in across the border, we know we have to step up and do more.”
Historically, the RGV Sector has experienced a high level of illegal entries and is a corridor known to be used daily by Mexican drug cartels to move narcotics into the United States. According to CBP, completing the border wall in these locations will support the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) ability to impede and deny illegal border crossings and the drug- and human-smuggling activities of cartels.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Before his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyClarkBBTX.
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