By Roland Murphy for AZBEX
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has confirmed it will build a 24.7-mile segment of border wall south of Sonoita in the San Rafael Valley.
News of the new pedestrian-blocking border wall segment broke after CBP notified Sierra Club in a monthly planning and activities update the environmental group receives under the terms of a 2019 lawsuit settlement.
Separately, the agency confirmed details to AZBEX, The Arizona Republic and the Arizona Daily Star.
The Sierra Club and other environmental groups have expressed concerns blocking off the comparatively isolated segment of grassland could impede migration and breeding by protected jaguar and ocelot populations. The groups have expressed a preference for barriers designed to stop vehicular incursions but that have sufficient gaps to allow wildlife to pass through.
Supporters of the more restrictive wall design argue if a jaguar or deer can conveniently cross the barrier, so can humans crossing the area illegally.
Wall Plans and Process
CBP spokesperson John Mennell said the nearly 25-mile wall section will be built between the town of Naco in Cochise County and the Nogales Border Patrol Station in Santa Cruz County.
According to the Daily Star, “This project will be among the 85 miles of new border barriers from California to Texas that were funded with ‘prior year’ appropriations, a CBP spokesman said. Most if not all of those were approved by Congress during the first Trump administration, since President Joe Biden halted border wall construction shortly after taking office. The new fencing includes projects within the Border Patrol’s Tucson, Yuma, San Diego, El Paso and Rio Grande Valley sectors, the spokesman said.”
The Republic reported administration officials with the Department of Homeland Security told Sierra Club representatives there is $500M in available funding from a previous emergency declaration.
BEX research staff reached out to CBP for additional information and received a call from Mennell. He said the project falls under the Border Infrastructure Design-Build Multiple Award IDIQ that was closed in January 2023.
According to the description:
CBP seeks highly qualified Contractors for award of a five-year multiple-award Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity involving design and construction of border infrastructure and border infrastructure technology requirements including border barriers, anti-climb features, enforcement zones, roads, gates, bridges, drainage control, cattle guards, lighting, detection systems, cameras, towers, and communication fiber. This includes all utilities, environmental compliance and supporting site work required to implement, operate, and maintain border infrastructure and technology along the United States-Mexican border.
All selected Contractors will be awarded one IDIQ contract and a Task Order contract to meet the IDIQ minimum quantity requirements. One of the Contractors will be awarded an initial Design-Build Construction TO to meet the minimum requirement. All selected Contractors will also be provided an opportunity to propose on future TO requirements for border wall and supporting tactical infrastructure and technology along the United States-Mexican border depending on CBP’s needs. The “magnitude of construction projects” will have a construction cost range of between $50M and $400M per TO.
Mennell also said the specific contractors will not be announced until all the individual TOs are awarded.
No timeline has been announced for starting construction, and environmental group representatives have said they are exploring opposition options.
