Illegals cross at McAllen at higher numbers.
Should have started the wall at the tip of TX and build continuously to the west rather than a little here and a little there.
“Illegals cross at McAllen at higher numbers. Should have started the wall at the tip of TX and build continuously to the west rather than a little here and a little there.”
This year, 33 miles of new barrier was funded for Rio Grande Valley around McAllen. It is currently in the works, with contracts likely being awarded after Christmas. Work has already started on 28 miles in San Diego, 2.25 miles in Calexico, as well as this 4 miles in downtown El Paso, and another 20 miles heading out West from El Paso.
That area (around McAllen) alone gets about 500 apprehensions a day, so it will make a big impact. During the Bush-era fence building, Brownsville/Matamoros got a lot of good barrier, but McAllen was left with lots of big gaps - miles wide. This 33 Miles will fill the gaps South of McAllen, except for 3 miles in the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge. The next year of funding has been rumored to pretty cover the Rio Grande Valley from Falcon lake to Gulf, with just a few gaps, like the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge.
The start of work is later there for a few big reasons. There are lots of landowners that have to be settled with. The floodplain of the Rio Grande basically requires that border barrier be built on top of levees, which make it a bigger job, and they don’t track the border exactly - they can be more than a mile inside the USA.
Trump is putting in really strong barrier (which will stop a speeding dump truck), set in concrete over two feet thick and six feet deep. It comes with good patrol road, lights, cameras and alarms. He is putting in the areas of highest crossing (urban areas like San Diego, El Paso, and the Rio Grande Valley) even though those are the toughest areas to get built.