Pentagon Awards Almost $1 Billion in Border Wall Contracts
Both projects are expected to be completed in October 2020
© press
The Department of Defense awarded $976 Million worth of contracts for the construction of border walls in New Mexico and Arizona, according to reports.
$789 million was awarded to SLSCO Ltd., a builder based in Galveston, Texas, to replace a border wall in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
A further $187 million was awarded to Barnard Construction Co. Inc to replace pedestrian barriers in Yuma, Arizona.
Both projects are expected to be completed in October 2020.
© press
The contracts will be paid with Army funds, according to a statement from the Pentagon.
According to Epoch Times: The statement didn’t stipulate whether the funds came from the $1.4 billion approved by Congress, the $3.1 billion shifted from other departments, or the $3.6 billion designated for border wall construction through the emergency declaration by President Donald Trump.
The Pentagon didn’t immediately respond to a request for clarification.
Santa Teresa, where the $789 million sections of the wall will be built, is part of the El Paso border sector, which has seen the sharpest increase in crossings.
From October to March, apprehensions of illegal aliens in the El Paso sector grew 1,670 percent for family units, 333 percent for unaccompanied minors, and 60 percent for single adults, compared to the same period in 2018, according to the Border Patrol.
Agents working the El Paso sector apprehended 35,898 unaccompanied alien minors, 53,565 migrants traveling as families, and 9,933 single alien adults in the six months before March 31.
© press
The Yuma border sector, where the $187 million border wall will be built, has experienced a 273 percent jump in illegal border crossings by migrants traveling as families from October to March compared to the same period a year earlier.
Border Patrol agents in the Yuma sector apprehended 3,679 unaccompanied alien children, 24,194 aliens traveling with a family member, and 3,520 single alien adults in the six months before the end of March.
During his campaign, Trump promised to build a wall on the border with Mexico.
Despite staunch opposition from Democrats in Congress, he has secured more than $8 billion for wall construction this year.
Virtually all construction is occurring in sections of the border where older walls no longer meet Border Patrol’s operational requirements.
“We’ve built a lot of wall. A lot of wall. And it’s new wall,” Trump told reporters at the White House on April 10.
“You know, when we rip down an old wall and then replace it, it’s called a ‘new wall.’ And that’s what we’ve done. A lot of wall is going up. And every place we build the wall, it’s less and less,” the president added.
The White House is reshuffling the senior leadership of its immigration agencies.
The leadership changes are part of Trump’s plan for a more robust approach to immigration.
The president said on April 10 that migrants are drawn to the United States because of the great economy and loopholes in the immigration system.
The sharp increase in family units illegally crossing the border is primarily attributed to a patchwork of policies which force immigration authorities to release family units into the interior of the country before their asylum claim are adjudicated.
