{"id":560012,"date":"2018-04-09T19:20:59","date_gmt":"2018-04-10T01:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=560012"},"modified":"2018-04-10T07:11:15","modified_gmt":"2018-04-10T13:11:15","slug":"border-patrol-kicks-off-construction-of-trumps-wall-in-nm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/04\/border-patrol-kicks-off-construction-of-trumps-wall-in-nm\/","title":{"rendered":"Border Patrol kicks off construction of Trump&#8217;s wall in NM"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_560020\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-560020\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/CBP_Wall_2_JA_TT-771x497.jpg\" alt=\"Border Patrol agents\" width=\"771\" height=\"497\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/CBP_Wall_2_JA_TT-771x497.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/CBP_Wall_2_JA_TT-336x217.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/CBP_Wall_2_JA_TT-768x495.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/CBP_Wall_2_JA_TT.jpg 1132w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Juli\u00e1n Aguilar \/ The Texas Tribune<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Border Patrol agents at a new conference in Santa Teresa on Monday.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A groundbreaking Monday for a new border barrier in New Mexico\u00a0signals the beginning of the fulfillment of\u00a0President Donald Trump\u2019s best-known campaign promise, federal officials said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe president has started his project,\u201d Agent Aaron A. Hull,\u00a0chief of the\u00a0U.S. Border Patrol&#8217;s El Paso\u00a0sector, said as he stood a few\u00a0feet from the existing fence\u00a0that will be replaced by the new barrier. \u201cThis is the beginning, in this sector, of the president\u2019s border wall \u2013 very much so.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article originally appeared in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/04\/09\/el-paso-border-patrol-sector-kicks-construction-trumps-wall-texas-bord\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Texas Tribune<\/a>,\u00a0a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The project will include 20 miles of new bollard-style <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cbpphotos\/sets\/72157693474390271\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wall<\/a> up to 30 feet tall,\u00a0including five feet of climb-resistant material,\u00a0Hull said. The new barrier will extend west from Santa Teresa, N.M. \u2014 a town located about 13 miles northwest of El Paso \u2014 and\u00a0will replace shorter vehicle barriers, which agents said are not effective to deter illegal crossers or drug smuggling.<\/p>\n<p>Agents in the sector, which\u00a0includes El Paso and Hudpseth counties in Texas and all of New Mexico, said new construction will also begin soon in parts of Texas\u2019 Rio Grande Valley, Arizona and San Diego.<\/p>\n<p>Hull said the new construction was mandated by the president\u2019s January 2017 executive order on immigration and will take about a year to complete. The 20 miles of barrier\u00a0will cost more than $73 million, which will come from 2017 Department of Homeland Security funding.<\/p>\n<p>Hull said the Santa Teresa area was chosen for the initial groundbreaking because it&#8217;s one of the busiest crossing points\u00a0in the sector. In fiscal year 2017, agents apprehended more than 25,000 undocumented immigrants and seized more than 34,000 pounds of marijuana and 140 pounds of cocaine throughout the sector. Agents also reported being assaulted 54 times during that fiscal year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The president has set the standard for us. And the standard is operational control,&#8221; Hull said. &#8220;Operational control means our ability to detect, deter and deny illegal entry, maintain situational awareness and provide the appropriate law enforcement response.&#8221;<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Hull also told reporters that he and his agents met with units of the National Guard that will be\u00a0deployed to the border. Trump ordered National Guard units to reinforce the Border Patrol last week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re nowhere near deploying yet but we have conducted initial outreach with both the New Mexico National Guard and the Texas National Guard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Monday\u2019s press event came the same day that an environmental group announced they are appealing a federal district court\u2019s ruling that allowed the administration to move forward with\u00a0border wall\u00a0construction. The Center for Biological Diversity sued the administration last year, alleging the Department of Homeland Security illegally waived several environmental laws in order to fast-track the wall\u2019s construction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cConverting existing vehicle barriers to border wall is wasteful, unnecessary, and just as damaging as building a new border wall,\u201d said Randy Serraglio, a conservation advocate at the Center. \u201cThis newest section of border wall is an insult to people living on both sides of the border and a serious threat to Mexican wolves and other wildlife that need to move across the landscape to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Federal District Judge Gonzalo Curiel ruled in favor of\u00a0the administration in March.<script src=\"https:\/\/cdn.texastribune.org\/pixel\/dot.min.29c708b3d0da5d17a725.js\" integrity=\"sha384-8Xwf\/TlQnmHiajg1t3dn8w4qlF1rmV33o5NAQVXYu0T2q3rHV5579zrSmRjh+XnM\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\" data-tt-canonical=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/04\/09\/el-paso-border-patrol-sector-kicks-construction-trumps-wall-texas-bord\/\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. Border Patrol agents on Monday announced the beginning of construction on the &#8220;big, beautiful wall&#8221; that President Donald Trump promised to build on the southern border.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":560020,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,3307,3298],"class_list":["post-560012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-donald-trump","tag-santa-teresa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}