Homeland Security Replacing Vehicle Barrier With New Walls in New Mexico

January 23, 2018

The Homeland Security Department announced this week it is waiving environmental rules in order to tear down about 20 miles of vehicle barrier along the New Mexico border and replace it with a higher wall.

Saying that the El Paso, Texas, region has seen a rise in cross border apprehensions, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced Monday that the department will be replacing existing vehicle barrier along about 20 miles of the border with bollard-style walls. 

It’s the latests push by the Trump administration to replace infrastructure along the U.S.-Mexico border.  What’s being replaced is barrier built less than 15 years ago that was intended to stop cars, not people.

"They are replacing even more expensive fencing in San Diego. They’ve got triple layer fencing they’re replacing there, I believe," said Brian Segee, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group suing to stop the new walls from going up. 

The project will begin at the Santa Teresa Port of Entry in New Mexico and run about 20 miles west. An agency spokesman said the new border wall will be more effective.