MISSION, Texas (Border Report) — The sounds of construction cut through this rural section of the border on Wednesday as crews put segments of new, taller border bollards on a section of wall that was built during the Biden administration.
Crews hoisted the bollards up and over the existing 6-foot wall and fit the new border wall into the old slats, making the barrier 30 feet tall.
In March, U.S. Customs and Border Protection approved the first border wall contract of President Donald Trump’s second term to build seven miles of border barrier here in Hidalgo County.
This specific section, near the Chimney RV Park has been worked on three different times during the past three administrations.
The land was cleared and concrete poured during the first administration but Joe Biden took office and stopped all border wall construction before the bollards were put in. Instead, the Biden administration had shorter 6-foot-tall metal bollards put in — called remedial wall — after local officials worried that the cleared land would be vulnerable to flooding and severe weather.
But in his first day of his second term, Trump issued an executive order to re-start border wall construction, saying, “A nation without borders is not a nation.”
The order calls for “establishing a physical wall and other barriers monitored and supported by adequate personnel and technology.”
The 7 miles of border wall being built in Hidalgo County will cost $70 million and are being built by Granite Construction Company, of California.
This contract is funded with CBP’s Fiscal Year 2021 funds “and will close critical openings in the border wall that were left incomplete due to cancelled contracts during the Biden administration,” CBP said.
“The RGV Sector is an area of high-illegal entry and experiences large numbers of individuals and narcotics being smuggled into the country illegally. 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,” CBP said.
The nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity are among organizations that oppose border wall construction.
“Walls built along the U.S.-Mexico border over the past several decades are a blight on the landscapes and cultures of the borderlands,” the Center for Biological Diversity wrote in a 2023 study. “These barriers cut through sensitive ecosystems, destroy thousands of acres of habitat, cause catastrophic flooding, separate families, and impede the cross-border migration of dozens of animal species.”
Earlier this month, the Center filed a lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to try to stop border wall construction in Arizona, citing dangers to endangered species, and claiming the administration does not have the right to waive environmental laws in order to build border barrier.
“New bollard walls will be impermeable for larger wildlife and thereby close critical transboundary pathways,” the lawsuit claims. “Border wall construction on the Arizona-Mexico border will destroy the border’s last remaining significant wildlife corridor and could lead to the extirpation of the iconic and critically endangered jaguar.”
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
