Granite Construction Co. of California awarded border wall contract

A $70 million contract was awarded to a construction company over the weekend for a seven-mile extension of the border wall, the first contract under President Donald Trump’s second term to continue border wall construction.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency announced that Granite Construction Co., a company based in California, will begin extending the border wall in Hidalgo County, Texas, within the U.S. Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector.

CBP said it aimed to “close critical openings” in the border wall that was partially completed under Trump’s first administration. Construction stopped when former President Joe Biden halted the funding for the border wall program.

“Completing the border wall in these locations will support the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) ability to impede and deny illegal border crossings and the drug- and human-smuggling activities of cartels,” the agency wrote in a news release.

The agency described the Border Patrol’s RGV sector as an area where “high-illegal entry” happens and where “large numbers of individuals and narcotics (are) being smuggled into the country illegally.”

The most recent figures published in an open data portal by CBP show that the apprehension of migrants caught between ports of entry in the sector fell from the month prior, landing just under 1,300 last month. This follows a trend of decreasing apprehensions by Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley since the beginning of the 2024 fiscal year.

In September 2023, agents apprehended almost 46,000 individuals. The following month, apprehensions dropped by a third in the sector.

The Border Patrol apprehended 135,099 people in the Rio Grande Valley Sector in fiscal year 2024. By comparison, agents in the Tucson Sector recorded 463,567 apprehensions in the same year.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced during her visit to Nogales that construction officially began Sunday.

"Everybody, I'm here in Arizona, and right at this spot you can see where the border wall ends," said Noem in a video shared to X. "As of today, we're starting seven new miles of construction. We're going to continue to make America safe again."

At least two publications published stories with headlines suggesting the construction would happen in Arizona.

A CBP official said that, as of Monday, no additional border wall construction had been confirmed in Arizona.

Arizona’s border with Mexico was a major focus of wall construction during the first Trump administration, with about 226 miles of pedestrian fencing erected on federal lands in the state.

Between 2017 and 2021, the administration constructed 458 miles of fencing, most of which replaced existing portions of the wall system with significantly taller structures.

Have any news tips or story ideas about the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona? Reach the reporter at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @raphaeldelag.