Border fence replacement project to begin on Monday
CALEXICO – Preliminary work is scheduled to start Monday to replace a 2.25-mile stretch of outdated fencing west of the downtown port of entry that has continuously posed an increased safety risk to Border Patrol agents.
The new 30-foot fencing will be significantly taller than the existing 14-foot barrier and will replace the existing landing mat style fencing with bollard fencing similar to that which runs parallel to First Street east of the downtown port of entry.
The new border fencing will allow agents to observe activity south the border, including instances where people are intending to cross illegally or launch an attack against agents, said sector Assistant Chief Patrol Agent David Kim.
“El Centro Sector right now has the highest number of assaults on agents anywhere in the Border Patrol,” Kim said. “That was the main factor for us wanting to replace this.”
The project will not add any additional mileage to the existing international border within the El Centro Sector, and is not a result of President Donald Trump’s repeated calls for a so-called “border wall,” the agency reported.
The El Centro Sector had initially identified the outdated section as an area of concern in 2009, but had not received funding for its replacement until last year.
“Everything aligned for us and we were able to secure that funding,” Kim said.
The approximate $18 million fence replacement project will include undisclosed technological additions, as well as an all-weather access road that will be constructed behind the Gran Plaza outlets within an easement along the international boundary that the government already owns, he said.
The project’s contractor, Omaha, Neb.-based SWF Constructors, will have 300 days to complete construction, which will include the removal and replacement of fencing panels one at a time.
Changes to the Border Patrol’s enforcement activity in not expected as a result of the pending construction, unless any need arises.
“If there is any indications through intelligence or observations that require us to change that then we will,” Kim said.
As part of the project, a culvert will also be built across the New River, which has been the site of past assaults against agents, Kim said.
Aside from the dangers posed by individuals who target agents with rock-throwing, immigrants entering illegally into the United States through the New River at times will resort to splashing agents with water, mud and debris in an attempt to evade capture, Kim said.
“That’s considered an assault for us,” Kim said. “We all know what’s in that river – it’s nasty stuff.”
The El Centro Sector had recorded 19 reported assaults against agents in fiscal year 2016, and 21 the following fiscal year. The bulk of those assaults had occurred in the area where the border fencing is scheduled to be replaced, Kim said.
Currently, additional landing mat type fencing can be found along the border east of the downtown port of entry, although its potential replacement was not deemed as high a priority as that of the fencing west of the port of entry, he said.
In advance of the project, Border Patrol had shared information with the Mexican government and Mexicali officials, as well as Calexico officials and representatives of the Gran Plaza outlets, whose property abuts the international boundary.
The Border Patrol’s discussions with Mexican officials also sought to determine whether Mexican officials were aware of any public protests planned in opposition to the construction once it gets underway, Kim said.
Although the Border Patrol has not been made aware of any specific plans to protest the border fence replacement project, it has recently provided crowd control training for Mexicali municipal police as a precautionary measure, Kim said.
“We’re not opposed to people coming out and expressing their First Amendment rights,” he said. “We just want to make sure it’s peaceful and it doesn’t interfere with construction and construction workers.”
Once construction is underway, prefabricated sections of the border fence will brought in via tractor trailers with the assistance of the California Highway Patrol to ensure the free flow of both construction and general traffic near the border.
Since having received approval for the border fence’s replacement, the local sector has also made sustained efforts to help preserve portions of a 2.2-mile binational mural that adorns sections of the fence that will be replaced.
Among other areas of the Southwest border, the Border Patrol has worked with community stakeholders to preserve sought-after sections of the border wall in the past, and highlight the agency’s desire to be as transparent as possible, Kim said.
Locally, the agency worked with Calexico’s arts commission and the project’s contractor to set aside enough panels to reproduce a total of four of the “Border Metamorphosis” mural’s motifs, which represent friendship and which were added to the border fence shortly after its installation in 1997.
“This is something that is important to the community and we recognize that,” Kim said. “So we definitely did our best to appease and meet whatever expectations the community had.”