United States Customs and Border Protection has awarded a construction company roughly $70 million to a extend the wall along the southern border, in the first such contract of President Trump’s second term.
The contract tasks Granite Construction Co., a California-based company that has worked on government projects before, with building approximately seven more miles of the wall on a stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border in Hidalgo County, Texas. Border Patrol announced the contract Saturday, saying it aims to “close critical openings” in the wall only partially built under Mr. Trump’s direction during his first presidency. Former President Joe Biden froze funding for the border wall program when he took office.
“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,” said Border Patrol. The agency described the section of the Rio Grande Valley where construction will get underway as a common entry point for undocumented crossings that also “experiences large numbers of individuals and narcotics being smuggled into the country illegally.”
Mr. Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, formerly the governor of South Dakota, said construction on the wall officially began Sunday.
“Everybody, I’m here in Arizona, and right at this spot you can see where the border wall ends,” said Noem in a video shared on social media. “As of today, we’re starting seven new miles of construction. We’re going to continue to make America safe again.”
A controversial initiative designed to curb illegal immigration into the U.S., the border wall has garnered renewed focus from federal authorities since Mr. Trump’s return to the White House. Among his litany of executive orders, the president issued two, “Securing our Borders” and “Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border of the United States,” which in part directed the Department of Homeland Security to “take all appropriate action” to achieve “full operational control of the southern border.”
Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard visited the southern border earlier this month, to highlight the Trump administration’s efforts to combat illegal crossings and drug trafficking. Illegal border crossings have plummeted since Mr. Trump took office, although Vance said, “I think the president’s hope is that by the end of the term we build the entire border wall.”
Camilo Montoya-Galvez
contributed to this report.
