YUMA, Ariz. (AP) — On a dirt road past rows of
date trees, just feet from a dry section of Colorado River, a small
construction crew is putting up a towering border wall that the
government hopes will reduce — for good — the flow of immigrants who
cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.
Cicadas
buzz and heavy equipment rumbles and beeps before it lowers
30-foot-tall (9-meters-tall) sections of fence into the dirt. “Ahí
está!” — “There it is!” — a Spanish-speaking member of the crew says as
the men straighten the sections into the ground. Nearby, workers pull
dates from palm trees, not far from the cotton fields that cars pass on
the drive to the border.
South
of Yuma, Arizona, the tall brown bollards rising against a cloudless
desert sky will replace much shorter barriers that are meant to keep out
cars, but not people.
This 5-mile
(8-kilometer) section of fencing is where President Donald Trump’s most
salient campaign promise — to build a wall along the entire southern
border — is taking shape.
The president and
his administration said this week that they plan on building between 450
and 500 miles (724 and 806 kilometers) of fencing along the nearly
2,000-mile (3,218-kilometer) border by the end of 2020, an ambitious
undertaking funded by billions of defense dollars that had been
earmarked for things like military base schools, target ranges and
maintenance facilities.
Two other Pentagon-funded construction projects
in New Mexico and Arizona are underway, but some are skeptical that so
many miles of wall can be built in such a short amount of time. The
government is up against last-minute construction hiccups, funding
issues and legal challenges from environmentalists and property owners
whose land sits on the border.
The Trump
administration says the wall — along with more surveillance technology,
agents and lighting — is key to keeping out people who cross illegally.
Critics
say a wall is useless when most of those apprehended turn themselves in
to Border Patrol agents in the hope they can be eventually released
while their cases play out in immigration court.
In Yuma, the defense-funded section of tall fencing is replacing shorter barriers that U.S. officials say are less efficient.
It
comes amid a steep increase since last year in the number of migrant
families who cross the border illegally in the Yuma area, often turning
themselves in to Border Patrol agents. Many are fleeing extreme poverty
and violence, and some are seeking asylum.
So
far this year, Border Patrol agents in the Yuma sector have apprehended
over 51,000 family units. That’s compared with just over 14,500 the
year before — about a 250% increase.
The
Yuma sector is the third busiest along the southern border, with
officials building a temporary, 500-person tent facility in the parking
lot of the Border Patrol’s Yuma headquarters in June.
It
spent just under $15 million for the setup and services for four
months, including meals, laundry and security, but officials are
evaluating whether to keep it running past next month as the number of
arrivals in Yuma and across the southern border have fallen sharply in recent months.
The
drop is largely due to the Mexican government’s efforts to stop
migrants from heading north after Trump threatened tariffs earlier this
year to force Mexico to act.
The number of
people apprehended along the southern border fell by 61 percent between
this year’s high point in May and the end of August. In Yuma, it fell by
86 percent, according to government figures. Most people apprehended
are either traveling as families or are unaccompanied children.
“Historically
this has been a huge crossing point for both vehicles as well as family
units and unaccompanied alien children during the crisis that we’ve
seen in the past couple of months,” Border Patrol spokesman Jose Garibay
said. “They’ve just been pouring over the border due to the fact that
we’ve only ever had vehicle bollards and barriers that by design only
stop vehicles.”
Victor Manjarrez Jr., a
former Border Patrol chief who’s now a professor at the University of
Texas, El Paso, was an agent when the government put up the first
stretch of barriers along the southern border — in San Diego.
He’s
seen barriers evolve from easily collapsible landing mats installed by
agents and the National Guard to the sophisticated, multibillion-dollar
projects now being done by private contractors.
Manjarrez
says tall border fencing is crucial in some areas and less helpful in
others, like remote stretches of desert where shorter barriers and more
technology like ground sensors would suffice.
“One
form doesn’t fit in all areas, and so the fence itself is not the one
solution. It’s a combination of many things,” Manjarrez said.
The
ease of construction varies by place and depends on things like water,
Manjarrez said, adding that just because a plot of land is flat “doesn’t
mean it’s not complex.”
He said building
450 to 500 miles (724 and 806 kilometers) of fence by the end of next
year would be tough if that figure doesn’t include sections of the wall
that have been built recently.
“As it stands
now, contractors are building pretty fast,” Manjarrez said. The real
question is whether the government needs to build that much fencing, he
said.
The Trump administration may face
those issues along with lawsuits from landowners who aren’t giving up
their property so easily and environmentalists who say the barriers stop
animals from migrating and can cut off water resources.
The
Tohono O’odham tribe in Arizona also has expressed opposition to more
border fencing on its land, which stretches for nearly 75 miles (120
kilometers) along the border with Mexico.
Near
Yuma, the Cocopah Indian Tribe’s reservation is near the latest fencing
project, and leaders are concerned it will block the view to its sacred
sites, spokesman Jonathan Athens said.
___
This story has been corrected to say that the section of fence installed near Yuma, Arizona, is 30 feet, or 9 meters, tall.
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