Mexico border 'bollard wall' construction begins in Santa Teresa

Construction of a new $73 million bollard wall along the U.S.-Mexico border in Santa Teresa, N.M., began Monday after an official groundbreaking of what officials called the “president’s border wall.”

“Make no mistakes ladies and gentleman, this wall is going to reduce illegal entries,” U.S. Border Patrol El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Hull said during a press conference and groundbreaking ceremony just a mile west of the Santa Teresa port of entry — and within reach of Mexico.

Construction of the wall, which is to replace existing posts that serve as vehicle barriers in the area, is expected to be completed by March 2019, Hull said. The wall will stand 18 feet to 30 feet tall in different areas, depending on the terrain.

“It is going help maintain a secure border. It is going to establish the operational control that the president has mandated,” Hull added. “We have been adding barriers to physical entries for almost 30 years and have seen the results."

As officials praised the wall’s impact on securing the border, Hull also said the agency is ready to work with U.S. National Guard troops being sent to the borderland to help fight illegal activity.

The project comes as President Donald Trump has called for a border wall to be built along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“This is the beginning in this sector of the president’s border wall,” Hull said.

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The bollard wall will be different from the existing 18-foot-tall corrugated metal fence that runs along the border in El Paso and some of southern New Mexico. It will be more durable and have anti-scaling plates at the top to make it more difficult to climb over, Hull said.

“It will serve as a durable barrier for those trying to get over,” Hull said. “It will deter all but the most determined illegal entries into United States. It is going to make it hard for for illegal aliens to cross. It is going to make it harder for smugglers and border criminals to move freely between the two countries as they can now.”

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The funding for the new wall comes from an executive order signed by President Donald Trump last year to increase security on the Southwest border.

“The President has set the standard for us," Hull said. "That standard is operational control. Operational Control means our ability to detect, deter and deny illegal entry, maintain situational awareness, and provide the appropriate law enforcement response.”

After the signing of the executive order, the Border Patrol then identified areas along the border that needed barriers added, Hull said. The El Paso sector, which covers New Mexico and far West Texas, has about 20 miles of vehicle barriers and was identified as a priority area.

“This section, which is part of the Santa Teresa station area, is our busiest area for illegal alien apprehension and has been for several years," Hull said. "It is also a primary corridor for the smuggling of narcotics. The wall that we are going to put in here is going to serve as an effective barrier to both. It is going to allow us to use more effective use of our agents and our technology.”

According to CBP officials, the El Paso Sector, which includes New Mexico, has seen a "high number of apprehensions of illegal immigrants and drug smuggling."

MORE: Trump insists his views on a border wall have not 'evolved'

Officials said 25,193 undocumented migrants were apprehended and 34,189 pounds of marijuana and 140 pounds of cocaine were seized in the 2017 fiscal year.

That's a slight decrease over fiscal year 2016 when 25,634 apprehensions were reported. That year, more than 67,500 pounds of marijuana and nearly 160 pounds of cocaine were seized.

“The time is now,” Hull said. “The numbers are going back up. It is a logical step and it is time for us to take it.”

In 2015, El Paso Sector agents made 14,495 apprehensions, while 12,339 were made in the 2014 fiscal year, figures show.

However, the number of apprehensions in the El Paso Sector decreased dramatically over the past decade, according to CBP annual reports. In the 2007 fiscal year, agents apprehended 75,464 migrants illegally crossing the border.

Hull said that aside from curbing illegal crossings, the new wall will also help protect border agents.

“It is important to note the safety aspects that a wall provides,” Hull said. “U.S. Border Patrol agents are the most frequently assaulted and most frequently injured federal law enforcement officers. We have seen time and time again that the addition of serious infrastructure creates a safer environment for our people to operate.”

He added, “It also creates a safer community on both sides of the border. People are allowed to live and work in places where you don’t have the criminal element that thrives in areas where it is easy to cross the boundary between the two countries and make money through illicit commerce.”

There were 54 assaults against El Paso Sector agents in the 2017 fiscal year, CBP reports show.

Environmental impact

Environmentalists have sued over the project, saying the federal government overstepped its authority in waiving laws as a way to speed construction. A federal judge recently sided with the government in a similar case in California.

The Center for Biological Diversity, who filed the lawsuit, filed an appeal April 9 with the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asking to overturn the federal judge's ruling.

“Trump is ignoring bedrock environmental protections and relying on a congressional waiver that expired years ago,” Brian Segee, a senior attorney at the Center, said in a statement. “He’s on a rampage to fulfill a hateful political promise, bulldozing forward with no concern for how much damage these walls will inflict on communities and wildlife. This lawlessness and executive overreach needs to stop.”

The statement continued, “Trump has an irrational obsession about the border, and Congress has indulged him,” said Segee. “It’s up to the judicial system to restore some sanity and stand up for these spectacular borderlands. The communities and wildlife along the border need and deserve legal protection.”

More: Activists fight to remove border fence, say no to wall, citing concerns for wildlife

More: Environmental laws waived for New Mexico border wall west of Santa Teresa

Hull said the Border Patrol takes the potential environmental impact of the wall seriously.

“The safety and security the wall is going to be providing for us is also going to help make it a better environment in many ways north of the wall," he said. "Illegal alien trafficking, smuggling of both human and narcotics, are both commonly associated with trash, human waste, vandalism and other types of destruction which hurts not the environment but many landowners, cattle producers and others who live out here and have to live with the impacts of this damage.”

Hull said that larger animals such as deer and coyotes will not be able to cross the wall, but that neither animal is endangered in this area.

National Guard

Hull also addressed Trump's order last week to deploy National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.

He said the Border Patrol welcomes the help of the National Guard, which will provide administrative support and not law enforcement support.

"They have capabilities to provide for us that can make it much easier for us to secure the border," Hull said. "Things like air support, repairing (and) creating infrastructure to assist us, logistical support, assisting with surveillance capabilities. Things that allow us to put Border Patrol agents back on the border, securing the border and enforcing immigration law.”

READ: César Chávez Day should be 'National Border Control Day,' says Texas Republican

Officials from the Border Network for Human Rights, an immigration reform and human rights advocacy group based in El Paso, came out strongly against the order, claiming Trump is militarizing the border.

"The U.S. military is not a civilian law enforcement agency," the network's executive director Fernando Garcia said in a statement. "Soldiers are not trained in immigration law. Soldiers are not trained in civil and constitutional rights. Soldiers are not trained to interact with civilian communities. They are trained to kill."

Garcia said the deployment of troopers puts the lives of migrants at risk.

"This is an absurd and destructive idea," Garcia said. "This will not make our border safer. This will not make America safer. If this happens, it will kill the ideals of America and it will put the life and rights of border residents and immigrants in danger."

Aaron Martinez may be reached at 546-6249; aamartinez@elpasotimes.com; @AMartinez31 on Twitter. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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