It’s indeed a wall, but it isn’t Trump’s
Framing it as his own, president cheers start of project that began planning 9 years ago.
Framing it as his own, the president cheers the start of a project that began planning nine years ago.
When a border wall replacement project began near downtown Calexico this year, Border Patrol agents emphasized that it should not be confused with President Trump’s wall. The president himself stirred up confusion Wednesday, tweeting photos of the Calexico construction and saying, “Great briefing this afternoon on the start of our Southern Border WALL!”
One problem: Plans for the wall replacement project started in 2009.
“It was ultimately funded under the current administration in 2017, but is completely separate of any political talk or commentary,” Justin Castrejon, a spokesman for the Border Patrol’s El Centro Sector, said earlier this month.
On the first weekend of the El Centro Sector’s Border Patrol citizen’s academy in early March, agents took attendees out for a border tour, stopping to show them the construction and trying to clear up any confusion.
“First and foremost, this isn’t Trump’s wall,” Jonathan Pacheco, a spokesman for the sector, told those in attendance. “This isn’t the infrastructure that Trump is trying to bring in…. This new wall replacement has absolutely nothing to do with the prototypes that were shown over in the San Diego area.”
When asked whether the wall replacement and Trump’s wall were the same thing, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson gave a one-word email reply to The Times: “Yes.”
A 2.25-mile section of wall, built in the 1990s out of recycled scraps of metal and old landing mat, is being swapped out with a 30-foothigh bollard-style wall. Smuggling organizations damaged and breached the outdated version of the wall several hundred times during the last two years, leading to costly repairs, according to the El Centro Sector.
The area was identified as high risk because of the level of illegal border activity. A number of agents were assaulted in the area in 2017, one reason it is getting new infrastructure, Castrejon said.
“This new infrastructure will help us provide better security for our agents and better border security for our community and our nation,” he said.