Border Wall Replacement from Diverted Defense Funds Underway in New Mexico

Construction crews in New Mexico began work on a 46-mile stretch of replacement border walls. The project is reportedly funded with Department of Defense resources diverted by the Trump Administration under a national emergency declaration.

The construction company set forth on a contract to replace a 46-mile section of border fencing with a taller bollard wall. The project is running from Columbus, New Mexico, to Santa Teresa along the border that separates the state from Chihuahua, Mexico, KVIA, ABC7 reported.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently overturned a lower court’s ruling that blocked the use of diverted funds, Breitbart News’ Joel Pollak reported in July. The ruling freed approximately $2.5 billion for construction.

A video released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows footage from several projects underway in New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Texas.

Another CBP video shows the San Luis, Arizona, area in 2005 before the deployment of barriers and contrasting contemporary footage.

And finally, CBP officials released a video showing the construction of a stretch of new border bollard walls being built near San Luis, Arizona.

Conservation groups say the wall will be detrimental to the migration of animals like bighorn sheep and wolves, KVIA reported.

“It’s astonishing and sad to see Trump’s border wall being built through the most spectacular desert ecosystem on the planet,” Laiken Jordahl, borderlands campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity, told KVIA.

The new walls are expected to be more effective at stopping or reducing illegal border crossings. A recent video released by CBP shows a section of new border barrier in the San Diego Sector delaying the attempted crossing of migrants long enough for Border Patrol agents to respond, Breitbart Texas reported.

Despite the presence of smugglers with a ladder on the U.S. side of the barrier, surveillance reported and a rapid response from Border Patrol agents deterred the illegal crossing and led to the arrest of two migrants on immigration violations.