New Levee Wall System Panel Installation Begins in Rio Grande Valley

New Levee Wall System Panel Installation Begins in Rio Grande Valley .CBP

Release Date: November 1, 2019

WASHINGTON – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), has begun installing the first panels for new border wall system in U.S. Border Patrol’s (USBP) Rio Grande Valley (RGV) in Hidalgo County, Texas.

The busiest sector in the nation, RGV is USBP’s highest priority location for new border wall system construction. The RGV Sector accounts for approximately 40 percent of the illegal alien apprehensions and ranks first in seized cocaine and marijuana along the southwest border. The majority of illegal activity is occurring in areas of RGV with limited infrastructure and technology. The new border wall system will improve the RGV Sector’s ability to impede and deny illegal border crossings and the drug and human smuggling activities of transnational criminal organizations.

“Having previously worked in Tucson Sector, I’ve seen how walls are extremely effective in changing the operational environment in which we work,” said Rodolfo Karisch, Chief Patrol Agent of the Rio Grande Valley Sector.  “Locations where physical barriers have been constructed saw reduced illegal immigration flows, organized smuggling and environmental degradation. I look forward to putting this capability to work in new locations in RGV Sector.”

This project consists of approximately eight miles of new levee wall system in locations where no barriers currently exist.  The contract for this project was awarded in November 2018. This project is similar to the 76 miles of new border wall system recently constructed in the San Diego, El Centro, Yuma, and El Paso Sectors. In addition to a physical barrier, the new levee wall system also includes an enforcement zone, which will include technology to provide situational awareness, as well as an all-weather road for lateral access.

Since January 2017, approximately $9.8 billion has been identified to construct approximately 509 miles of new border wall system through a combination of Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense funding and the Treasury Forfeiture Fund. This includes approximately 110 miles of new levee and border wall system within USBP’s RGV Sector in areas where no barriers currently exist.

CBP continues to implement President Trump’s Executive Order 13767 – also known as Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements – taking steps to expeditiously plan, design, and construct a physical wall using appropriate materials and technology to most effectively achieve operational control of the southern border. 

Earlier this year, two other waivers were issued:

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued two waivers, which will ensure expeditious construction of new bollard wall within the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson and El Centro Sectors in Arizona and California, respectively. The projects covered by the waivers include up to approximately 78 miles of new bollard wall in place of dilapidated and outdated designs, in addition to road construction and improvement and lighting installation. The waivers were published in the Federal Register on May 15, 2019.

To support DHS’s actions under Section 102 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, as amended (IIRIRA), DHS requested that the Department of Defense (DoD), pursuant to its authority under 10 U.S.C. § 284(b)(7), assist with the construction of fences, roads and lighting within specified locations of the border in order to block drug-smuggling corridors across the international boundary between the United States and Mexico. The Acting Secretary of Defense determined that the projects covered by these waivers meet the statutory requirements of 10 U.S.C. § 284(b)(7).  As such, these projects will be funded by appropriations available to DoD. DoD, in close coordination with DHS and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), will plan and execute these projects in coordination with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).

These waivers are pursuant to authority granted to the Secretary of Homeland Security by Congress and cover a variety of environmental, natural resource and land management laws. Congress provided the Secretary of Homeland Security with a number of authorities necessary to carry out DHS’s border security mission. Section 102(a) of IIRIRA provides that the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take such actions as may be necessary to install additional physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the United States border to deter illegal crossings in areas of high illegal entry into the United States.

In section 102(b) of IIRIRA, Congress mandated the installation of additional fencing, barriers, roads, lighting, cameras and sensors on the southwest border. Finally, in section 102(c) of IIRIRA, Congress granted to the Secretary of Homeland Security the authority to waive all legal requirements that the Secretary, in the Secretary’s sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure the expeditious construction of the barriers and roads authorized by section 102 of IIRIRA.

The geographic scope of the Tucson waiver covers the areas defined below.  These projects will total approximately 63 miles of bollard wall within these areas:

The geographic scope of the El Centro waiver covers the areas defined below.  These projects will total approximately 15 miles of bollard wall within these areas:

While the waivers eliminate DHS’s obligation to comply with various laws with respect to covered projects, DHS remains committed to environmental stewardship. DHS has initiated consultation with other federal and state resource agencies to ensure that impacts to the environment, wildlife, and cultural and historic artifacts are analyzed and minimized, to the greatest extent possible.

The Tucson and El Centro Sectors are areas of high illegal entry and are experiencing large numbers of individuals and narcotics being smuggled into the country illegally. The construction of border infrastructure within these project areas will support DHS’s ability to impede and deny illegal border crossings and the drug and human smuggling activities of transnational criminal organizations. 

DHS continues to implement President Trump’s Executive Order 13767 – also known as Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements – and continues to take steps to immediately plan, design and construct a physical wall along the southern border, using appropriate materials and technology to most effectively achieve complete operational control of the southern border.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation’s borders at and between official ports of entry. CBP is charged with securing the borders of the United States while enforcing hundreds of laws and facilitating lawful trade and travel.