SUNLAND PARK, N.M. — Along a stretch of the Mexico border butting up against the Texas-New Mexico state line, construction workers are building a looming rust-colored barrier. It's not a new wall as President Donald Trump has promised, but a new fence to replace the old one that was falling apart.
“It’s to upgrade it,” explained Erica King, a Border Patrol agent in the El Paso sector. “It’s to replace old fencing that was already deteriorated and just needed to get replaced.”
As Trump moves forward with a plan to build a “big,” “beautiful,” “great” wall, millions are being spent to upgrade sections of the existing fence and maintain hundreds of miles of fence in key spots along the border. Critics of Trump’s border security strategy question the need for a new border barrier and balk at the cost, estimated to be as much as $25 billion — without maintenance expenses.
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The hot-button issue is expected to dominate talks when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly visit Mexico City Wednesday and Thursday for planned meetings with President Enrique Peña Nieto and members of his Cabinet. The trip is aimed at mending fences between the administrations of Trump and Peña Nieto, after Trump insisted Mexico pay for his proposed wall along the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. Peña Nieto vowed not to pay anything and, under pressure from his countrymen, he canceled a visit to Washington.
Mexico’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the meeting between U.S. and Mexican officials was aimed at building “a respectful, close and constructive relationship between the two countries.”
Kelly has spent part of the past two weeks touring the border with stops in Texas, Arizona and California. He talked to local, state and federal authorities, including Border Patrol agents on the ground who work in the shadow of the fence.
In an executive order, Trump directed Homeland Security to do a comprehensive study of security of the southern border within 180 days, and officials say the Border Patrol assessment should be completed well before the deadline. The agency is moving forward now and said in a statement it "has identified locations near El Paso, Tucson, Ariz., and El Centro, Calif., where we will build a wall in areas where the fence or old brittle landing-mat fencing are no longer effective."
Fencing is complicated
The dynamics along the border fence are complicated. In Naco, Ariz., the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is working to replace about seven miles of fence with an 18-foot bollard fence that is harder for people to climb. Agents can also see through the new structure into Mexico for "safer and more effective border security," according to a news release from U.S. Customs Border Protection.
It is not clear if the border wall Trump promised to build also will allow a view into Mexico, something Border Patrol agents prefer so they can respond better to potential threats on the other side. One thing that won't change is the need to maintain the fence, repair holes and other damage.
A new Government Accountability Office report released last Thursday found that from 2010 to 2015, the Border Patrol recorded 9,287 breaches in pedestrian fencing at an average cost of $784 per breach to repair.
On a recent morning, a two-person welding crew patched up holes in the fence dividing El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, the largest metropolitan area on the border. Border Patrol agents report damage to the fence "every day, several times a day," said King.
She used to be on the Border Patrol's welding crew before the federal government hired contractors to do the job.
King pointed to a section of fence near the Rio Grande with a red tag marking it. "You can see where they cut," she said. "What we do is we document this breach. Then we have to temporarily mend it for the time being until the professional contracting welders can come and repair it."
People crossing into El Paso can easily blend in once they make it across the border, but someone walking through a remote desert area near the fence is easily spotted. The Border Patrol in El Paso credits fencing in the city for cutting down on foot traffic and illegal crossings. According to the GAO, other Border Patrol sectors reported similar benefits of using the barrier to divert people to areas where agents can more easily spot smugglers and others trying to enter the U.S. illegally.
But the report also said, "GAO recommends that Border Patrol develop metrics to assess the contributions of pedestrian and vehicle fencing to border security along the southwest border" to better identify needs and funding for fencing and other tactical infrastructure.
Fencing is costly
Customs and Border Protection spent about $2.3 billion on the border fence from 2007 to 2015 and during that same period paid $450 million on "operations and maintenance requirements," according to the GAO report.
The Border Patrol considers the the fence a tool that, along with technology, helps agents do their jobs. "The goal is to slow people down. We know that whatever fencing we have, it's not going to deter everybody," said Border Patrol Agent George Gomez, who works in the El Paso sector. "It will just give us the opportunity to come out here and respond to sensor activity and place our agents in strategic locations based on the intelligence that we gather."
The new structure will no doubt cost more than the existing fence built in urban areas. It will require construction in remote places where there is rugged terrain and also involve adding infrastructure, including roads — so agents can patrol the area near the barrier and work crews can do routine maintenance and repair holes.
"A wall won't protect America from the flow of illegal drugs or from people who want to do us harm," said Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Cardin estimated the wall will cost $21 billion to build.
Cardin and his Democratic Senate colleagues Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Ed Markey of Massachusetts visited El Paso to tour the Texas-Mexico border Sunday after a trip to Mexico City in which they met with members of Mexico's Congress and other officials.
"We don't need a bigger wall; we need better cooperation with the Mexican government," said Markey. "The more Donald Trump vilifies the Mexican people and the Mexican government, the lower the cooperation between our two countries is going to be on these issues."
The senators praised the job Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection officers are doing but said a new border wall won't make the U.S. safer. "It jeopardizes our relationship with Mexico, which is critically important," Cardin said.
More visitors from Washington are expected on the border this week. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. toured the border in the Rio Grande Valley Wednesday.
The mission: Determine whether to build the wall, where to build it and the total price tag.
