Border Patrol begins filling 7 'vulnerable gaps' in border wall near Yuma
Construction crews are filling seven 'vulnerable gaps' in the border wall system, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Those gaps were set to be filled years ago during President Donald Trump's first term, but President Joe Biden's administration canceled the contracts drawn up to do so.
The gaps are in a remote desert area south of Wellton, Arizona. The exact number of miles to be completed remains unclear.
This latest border wall construction project is in response to Trump's executive order titled 'Securing Our Borders,' signed on his first day back in the White House. The executive order directs Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to 'deploy and construct temporary and permanent physical barriers to ensure complete operational control of the southern border of the United States.'
Noem announced that new border wall construction would begin during a visit to Nogales on March 16.
"Everybody, I'm here in Arizona, and right at this spot you can see where the border wall ends," Noem said in a video shared to X. "As of today, we're starting seven new miles of construction. We're going to continue to make America safe again."
The seven miles are an extension of the border wall in Hidalgo County, Texas, where a $70 million contract was awarded to Granite Construction Co., a California-based company, to build within the U.S. Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley sector. This was the first contract awarded during the second Trump administration.
The Arizona-Mexico border was the site of several wall construction projects under the first Trump administration. Between 2017 and 2021, the administration constructed 458 miles of fencing, most of which replaced existing structures. About 226 miles of pedestrian fencing were erected on federal lands in Arizona.
In 2019, the Trump administration began replacing existing border fence with 18-to-30-foot bollard-style fencing in an area 107 miles long, stretching east of Wellton to Andrade, California.
The new border wall fence was finished at the end of 2020, according to a 2021 news release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The number of migrant apprehensions for individuals caught crossing illegally between ports of entry has continued to drop significantly in the first month since Trump returned to office.
Across the southern border, Border Patrol agents reported 8,326 apprehensions for the entire month of February. That is a drop of 71% from January, when agents logged about 29,000 arrests, according to the CBP open data portal.
Border Patrol agents in the Yuma sector reported apprehending 243 individuals found crossing the border between ports of entry last month. The latest figure represents an approximately 95% drop in apprehensions in this sector from February 2024.
The decrease in apprehensions in this sector has been trending since last summer, when agents reported 5,321 arrests in May 2024 and then 3,519 the next month.
Have any news tips or story ideas about the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona? Reach the reporter at rromeroruiz@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @raphaeldelag.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Border Patrol begins filling gaps in border wall near Yuma
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