US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has selected Granite Construction to build an 11km-long wall in Hidalgo County, Texas, on the Mexican border.
The agency said the wall section will “close critical openings”, which it blamed on “cancelled contracts during the Biden Administration”.
It will be financed by the CBP’s 2021 funds.
The Rio Grande Valley is described by the CBP as an “area of high-illegal entry” with people and narcotics smuggling blamed on cartels.
On the first day of his second term, Trump signed two executive actions: “Securing our Borders” and “Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border of the United States”. It follows a declaration to build a wall across the southern US border with Mexico, a key pledge of his first presidency.
The Department of Homeland Security will be allowed to take “all appropriate actions” to build barriers and take “operational control” of the southern border.
Biden halted work on the wall on his first day in office, then reversed this decision later, using Trump-era funding to finance construction.
In 2018, Texas firm SLS won a $145m contract for the construction of a 9.6km wall in the Rio Grande Valley area. Previously, US contractors sought protections from the federal government fearful of reprisals by states and cities who oppose the construction of a border wall.
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Further Reading:
- Trump’s wall: Fearful US contractors seek protection against reprisals
- US awards 9.6km border wall construction contract
- US to spend $480m on border wall quality checks after smugglers cut through with cheap saws
- Biden halts work on Trump’s Mexican border wall
- “We Build the Wall” co-founder gets four years for fraud
