It’s just a fence
BP seeks to avoid confusion over project
CALEXICO — The local Border Patrol wants everyone to know the difference between a fence and a wall.
Hoping
to clear up some of the misunderstandings within the community and on social media, the U.S. Border Patrol El Centro Sector held a tour of the border fence replacement project currently under construction here.
Sector Assistant Chief Patrol Agent David Kim told members of local and regional media Wednesday the project is not related to the President’s proposed border wall.
The new fence was first identified as a local need by the sector back in 2009, but funding didn’t become available until last year, when $18 million was appropriated for it by the federal government.
“Because of the current political climate we are in, people have feelings one way or the other, and we just wanted to get in front of it and let everybody know that is a local tactical infrastructure project that we’ve planned for quite some time, so there’s no confusion about whether or not this is tied to some of the bigger immigration debate going on,” Kim said.
He added that the messaging has been part of the agency’s job to avoid any confusion. Kim also made a presentation to the public at the county Board of Supervisors on Feb. 6 in which he discussed the scope of the project.
The improvement consists of replacing a 2.25-mile stretch of fencing west of the downtown port of entry that has become an area of concern for local border patrol agents. The current landing mat fence will be replaced by a new 30-foot barrier with bollard fencing similar to that which runs parallel to First Street, east of the downtown port of entry.
In addition, to make illicit crossing more difficult in an area with a high volume of crossings, the new fence will also give the officers the ability to see what is south of the fence, something they’re unable to do now.
“It tends to be one of our more violent areas as far as agents being assaulted,” Kim said. “Putting the new wall up that is going up behind me will make it a lot more difcross ficult to in this area. We believe it will make our agents safer.”
The El Centro Sector recorded 19 reported assaults against agents in the 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.
The project is scheduled to be completed within 300 days, meaning it should be completed in the fall. At the moment, construction crews are removing small portions of the old fence prior to installing the new portions of the fence to avoid leaving a wide gap open. Kim said that at the end of each day, construction crews place temporary barriers to cover any gaps.
The Border Patrol has also been actively engaged with Mexican officials to ensure construction can proceed as planned without any incident on any side of the border. According to Kim, the sector has a foreign operations branch which has worked closely with Mexican officials to plan accordingly for the construction.
“Throughout the process we’ve been engaged with them, and we want to let them know what is going on and make sure they are aware of what we are doing,” Kim said. “If we need any security measures on the south side of the border, we can have our law enforcement partners come out and help us with that in the Mexican side.”
On Wednesday morning, as the Border Patrol agents monitored the construction site in the U.S., two Mexicali police officers were monitoring the area south of the border.
Due to the potential misunderstanding of what the project entails, the agency has prepared for demonstrations or protests on either side of the construction site, though they don’t intend to interfere with peaceful demonstrations. Kim said there is a need to ensure there are no disruptions in the site.
“Part of our job here is to educate and inform the stakeholders and the public of what is going on here,” he said. “That is one thing that we wanted to make clear from the beginning.”