Along the southern border, building materials are rusting
When President Biden came into office in January, his administration put an immediate stop on the building of a thirty foot high border fence, leaving a wide opening at one of the most unprotected stretches of the US-Mexico border.
The 20-foot gap in the frontier wall at Border Monument Three — one of the 276 original markers built after the Mexican-American War in 1848 — was permitting thousands of smugglers and migrants to enter into the United States easily, Border Patrol agents told The Post last week.
“The contractors just stopped,” said Richard Barragan, a Border Patrol agent in the El Paso Sector. pointing to the broken wall and a brace left by federal contractors still dangling from the iron fence when they hurriedly abandoned construction in January.
Along southern border, building materials have been rusting since the order to stop construction, Border Patrol agents said.
Desperate to contain the migrant flow at the remote, mountainous site at the confluence of the Texas, Mexico, and New Mexico border, Border Patrol agents took it upon themselves to fill the hole — with old truck tires and some of the construction materials that were left by the federal contractors.
“We have some agents who are good welders, and they put it all together,” Border Patrol agent Barragan said.
In June, the Biden administration officially declared plans to pull $2.2 billion of funding set aside by President Trump for the construction of the border wall and spend it on other things amid a increase in migrant border crossings.
Agents that work in the El Paso Sector, which patrols over a hundred thousand square miles between Texas and New Mexico, have now seized 155,892 people in fiscal year 2021, which ends Sept. 30 — about triple the 54,396 in all of FY2020.
The Department of Homeland Security said in June that it would divert the construction money— which it called “just one example of the prior Administration’s misplaced priorities and failure to manage migration in a safe, orderly, and humane way” — to the Pentagon for building projects on United States military bases.
“Appropriated funds could also be used for mitigating some environmental damage caused by border wall construction,” the statement noted.
Trump led the construction of more than 450 miles of border wall, a key campaign pledge that Democrats were very against, but one that has been supported by Border Patrol agents.
“The wall enhances my officers’ safety,” said Gloria Chavez, chief patrol agent of the El Paso Sector. “It delays entry and allows the agent to have the advantage. Additionally, it protects the agent.”
Over the past year, attacks by smugglers and drug traffickers against Border Patrol agents have almost doubled in the El Paso Sector, from 23 in FY2020 to 40 so far this year.
“Any infrastructure is helpful to us,” said Barragan, surveying the makeshift construction that roughly covers the gap. “These are just some of the challenges we face every day.”