Work started last week on one segment of the U.S.-Mexican border wall funded by U.S. military dollars. The 2-mile section is located in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Lukeville, Arizona, and will consist of 30-foot steel fencing leading up to an official entry point on the border. This section of the wall is part of a $664 million project in Arizona funded by the Defense Department. The department is funding border wall projects worth approximately $2.5 billion in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
In early August, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a contract to Southwest Valley Constructors worth $80.9 million to construct 11 miles of wall in Texas. The New Mexico-based contractor is charged with building levee walls at three different locations along the International Boundary and Water Commission Levee in Mission, Texas.
While work continues on different sections of the wall, court cases and investigations continue as well. Environmentalists in Arizona say the border wall hurts protected lands and wildlife habitats in the areas around the projects, and that the federal government has continued with construction unlawfully.
We Build the Wall, a privately funded group building several sections of the border wall, is being investigated by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services concerning issues with how the group raises funds for its projects. Multiple complaints have been raised over how the funds are allocated throughout the organization.
