U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has awarded a California-based company with a $70 million contract to extend the border wall.
Granite Construction Co. will add seven miles to the wall in Hidalgo County, Texas. The project will “close critical openings in the border wall that were left incomplete due to cancelled contracts during the Biden Administration,” a press release says.
“The RGV Sector is an area of high-illegal entry and experiences large numbers of individuals and narcotics being smuggled into the country illegally,” the release explains. “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.”
“Everybody, I’m here in Arizona, and right at this spot you can see where the border wall ends,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in a video shared to social media on Sunday. “As of today, we’re starting seven new miles of construction. We’re going to continue to make America safe again.”
A separate Texas border wall project terminated under the Biden administration has resumed.
“Back in business!” U.S. Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks announced earlier this month. “USBP began installing 18-foot-tall border wall panels in the Rio Grande Valley Sector’s Hidalgo County today. These panels were originally planned for installation during the prior Trump Administration, but the contracts were cancelled by the Biden Administration.”
“The panels going in today will replace the six-foot guard rails and will provide impedance and denial capabilities in support of the President’s recent Executive Orders to ensure complete operational control of the Southern border,” he said at the time.
