Sections of President Trump’s 450-mile border wall are currently under construction in southern Arizona; with officials vowing to complete the project by next year.
“This 5-mile (8-kilometer) section of fencing is where President Donald Trump’s most salient campaign promise — to build a wall along the entire southern border — is taking shape,” reports the Associated Press. “The president and his administration said this week that they plan on building between 450 and 500 miles (724 and 806 kilometers) of fencing along the nearly 2,000-mile (3,218-kilometer) border by the end of 2020.”
Similar construction projects in New Mexico are currently underway.
BORDER WALL UPDATE: Construction crews began building a border wall that the government hopes will reduce the flow of immigrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegallyhttps://t.co/NKbpRgolL9
— FOX Baltimore (@FOXBaltimore) September 12, 2019
“Historically this has been a huge crossing point for both vehicles as well as family units and unaccompanied alien children during the crisis that we’ve seen in the past couple of months,” Border Patrol spokesman Jose Garibay said. “They’ve just been pouring over the border due to the fact that we’ve only ever had vehicle bollards and barriers that by design only stop vehicles.”
Read the full story here.
Original Story: May 10, 2019
The Pentagon allocated more than $1.5 billion to construct new physical barriers along the US-Mexico border Friday; securing the funds after President Trump declared the region a “national emergency” just weeks ago.
“The Pentagon has approved a plan to spend an additional $1.5 billion to build 80 more miles of wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a U.S. defense official confirmed to Fox News Friday,” reports Fox News.
“Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan approved the re-allocation of funds, which were originally earmarked for support of Afghan security forces and other projects, to help pay for the wall along the southern border,” adds the article.
“Today, I authorized the transfer of $1.5 billion toward the construction of more than 80 miles of border barrier,” said Shanahan. “The funds were drawn from a variety of sources, including cost savings, programmatic changes, and revised requirements, and therefore will have minimal impact on force readiness.”
Read the full report at Fox News.