Construction of 6-mile stretch of Texas border wall to begin next year

Construction of 6-mile stretch of Texas border wall to begin next year Advertisement ...

Construction of 6-mile stretch of Texas border wall to begin next year

Advertisement Construction of 6-mile stretch of Texas border wall to begin next year Advertisement Construction of 6-mile stretch of Texas border wall to begin next year

Federal authorities have awarded a $145 million contract to a Texas company to build six miles of wall along the U.S.-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said Friday that SLSCO will begin construction of an 18-foot reinforced concrete levee wall in February in the agency's McAllen Station region. The company also will increase the height of existing fences.

Advertisement

• Superintendent apologizes for teachers' ‘inappropriate’ border wall costumes

It will be the first section of President Donald Trump's border barriers in the Rio Grande Valley, which is considered the busiest corridor for illegal crossings.

The government recently completed construction of a two-mile, 30-foot tall section of fencing along the border in California.

Trump has promised that the number of military troops deployed to the border could reach 15,000 â€" roughly double the number the Pentagon said it currently plans for a mission whose dimensions are shifting daily.

“As far as the caravan is concerned, our military is out,” Trump said. “We have about 5,800. We’ll go up to anywhere between 10,000 and 15,000 military personnel on top of Border Patrol, ICE and everybody else at the border.”

Trump last week told ABC News, “We have to have a wall of people.”

His comments were the latest twist in a story that has pushed the Pentagon unhappily into the political space, prompting questions about whether Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was allowing the military to be leveraged as a political stunt.

“We don’t do stunts,” Mattis said Wednesday.

Trump rejected the idea he was “fear mongering” or using the issue for political purposes, but his escalating rhetoric in the waning days of the campaign season calls that denial into question.

Trump has railed against illegal immigration, including several caravans of migrants from Central America slowly moving on foot toward the U.S. border. The caravan of an estimated 4,000 people is still nearly 1,000 miles from the border. Several smaller groups, estimated at a combined 1,200 people, are farther away.

AlertMe

Source: Google News | Netizen 24 United States