Where is the border wall being built
Building the border wall through the pandemic
president's priorities have moved
forward including construction work on
new barriers of our border with Mexico
in the Washington Post now reports this
evening that a North Dakota construction
firm has received the largest border
wall contract ever awarded a 1.3 billion
dollar deal to build 42 miles of black
painted fencing in southern Arizona so
we wanted to get a reality check on
what's being done on the president's
signature promise to build that wall and
what impact it's having along our
southern border here's ABC's Terry Moran
who's gonna pay for the wall who's gonna
pay for the wall it's the touchstone of
trumpism president Trump's signature
campaign pledge from 2016 build that
wall build that wall build a wall along
the southern US border to stop illegal
immigration three and a half years later
some sections of wall have been built
about a hundred and eighty miles or so
and President Trump is pressing on
construction has not slowed during the
corona virus pandemic the Trump
administration releasing this footage of
steel barriers being erected near Tucson
in late March appreciate everyone coming
out acting Secretary of Homeland
Security Chad Wolfe left his Washington
headquarters last week for a tour of the
walls progress in Arizona what that
border wall system provides the men and
women of the Border Patrol is that
increased impedance and denial and it
allows them to move resources to other
areas of the border that are very
difficult to patrol and so that's that's
critically important with a limited work
force we need to make sure that our
resources are being used effectively
since the end of February some 50 miles
of barriers has been built that figure
accounts for more than a quarter of all
border wall construction completed under
the trump presidency according to an ABC
News review of federal government data
trump has promised more than 500 miles
of border wall by early next year but
the reality only about three miles of
new barrier where none previously
existed have been built by the Trump
administration so far with lawsuits from
private property owners delaying the
federal land acquisition process but the
US border is hardening under Trump more
than
hundred and fifty-seven miles of wall
have replaced small or older structures
guardrails and wire mesh fences replaced
with towering steel beams in these areas
crews are working to build up security
infrastructure complete with access
roads and lighting no where is the
construction impact clearer than near
the Luke ville port of entry in southern
Arizona
ABC News travelled there in February
before nationwide pandemic shut down
orders Tucson Sector division chief
Daniel Peres has studied this landscape
since stepping into his current role
last year with the new system you'll
have technology that not only one will
detect the incursions but what the
additional lighting will also have an
opportunity to get a good a good sense
of what not only is happening on this
side of the border but also what
potential threats might be on the south
side we can redeploy our forces where we
might not have some of this technology
or it might be a little bit more
difficult to patrol so this is the
existing fence between the United States
and Mexico so these kind of breaches
these happen almost daily this is one
way that this wall is being defeated and
that that just really makes it important
for us to update our infrastructure the
way we are with the new border wall
system we're a so-called vehicle barrier
designed to stop the illegal crossing of
cars and trucks once stood now massive
panels of 30 foot steel beams get
anchored into the ground but in the
walls path lands with ancestral ties to
the Tohono awesome Native American tribe
so now we're forced to have to accept a
wall that divides our nation our land is
what keeps us humble happy peaceful
people the Trump administration has
issued waivers for several environmental
and cultural heritage protection laws in
specific areas designated for wall
construction as far as I'm concerned the
wall crossed our people we didn't cross
the wall construction crews in southern
Arizona conducted controlled blasts
earlier this year along Monument Hill a
peak that straddles the border on the
outskirts of the national organ pipe
wildlife preserve the same day of the
detonations in February the Tohono
autumn tribes chairman sat before
Congress it's hard to see the blasting
that you showed on the video today
because I know in my heart and what our
elders have told us and what we have
learned that that area is home to our
ancestors and by blasting and doing what
we saw today has totally disturbed holy
forever damaged our people environmental
advocates have spent months in this
remote corner of desert documenting the
plowing and excavation and demanding
more protections for animal and plant
life Customs and Border Protection
officials have insisted that
environmental standards are being
followed and that they are doing more
than required we've made our best
attempt to really broaden you know who
we talked to to get information not just
federal partners state partners lots of
you know professionals that have good
information about you know what could
potentially be affected by what we're
doing out here but concerns remain about
the water level in a nearby spring heavy
machinery in the area using an average
of eighty four thousand gallons of water
every day according to CBP another
feature of the nearby wildlife preserve
the saguaros cactus hundreds have been
pulled from the ground to make way for
new access roads while CBP says most our
planted elsewhere the excavation has
advocates crime found they are
stunningly beautiful plants each one of
them has individual character each one
of them is a living piece of natural
history and it is disgraceful it makes
me feel sick to see them butchered in
chopped up an ancient landscape of
people and nature slowly transformed by
the war Terry Moran
ABC News Washington hi everyone George
Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking
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