U.S. Customs and Border Protection awarded the first border wall contract of President Donald Trump’s second term to Granite Construction, according to a March 15 news release.
As part of the $70 million job, the Watsonville, California-based firm will build approximately 7 miles of new border barriers in Hidalgo County, Texas, in the U.S. Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector. The project will “close critical openings in the border wall” and support the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to stop illegal border crossings and smuggling, according to the release. It is funded with CBP’s fiscal year 2021 money.
The U.S.-Mexico wall has been a signature issue for Trump, and he has also ramped up efforts to arrest and deport people unauthorized to be in the U.S. since assuming office.
The DHS is working to implement Trump’s Jan. 20 executive orders titled “Securing our Borders” and “Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border of the United States,” which direct the Secretary of Defense to “take all appropriate actions” to construct physical barriers to ensure complete operational control of the southern border, per the release.
About 458 miles of fencing and other barriers were built in multiple states along the nearly 2,000-mile southern border in Trump’s first term, according to Politifact’s analysis of CBP data. The bulk of this work involved updating or replacing existing barriers; the amount of new primary border barriers the federal government built extended 52 miles.
Former President Joe Biden pledged to stop the effort when he assumed office, but later fast-tracked border wall construction in South Texas, filled wall gaps near Yuma, Arizona, and spent billions to shore up and build out border stations. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also continued to build about 50 miles of wall during the Biden years, to the tune of $3 billion, according to the Texas Tribune.
This Hidalgo County project is not Granite’s first border wall job. The company landed numerous contracts over the years to construct border fences, including in Nogales, Arizona; Imperial, California; and El Paso, Texas, according to local reports.
