A new fencing project underway by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at the United States-Mexico border is being touted by President Trump’s administration as his border “wall.”
The barrier going up in the Santa Teresa, New Mexico, is similar to that of the fencing that was constructed in Sunland Park, New Mexico, under former President Obama. The slight difference between the two fences? Height.
A DHS official told Breitbart News that the Santa Teresa border fence, to be constructed this year, will stand 30 feet tall. In some areas, though, the border fence will range between 18 feet to 30 feet tall.
Meanwhile, the Sunland Park border fence project—which started under Obama and was completed under Trump—stands at about 20 feet tall, but is, for the most part, the same type of bollard-style fence.
Here are photos of Trump’s new border fence set to go up in Santa Teresa, New Mexico:
https://media.breitbart.com/media/20...66111647_o.jpgConstruction crews from Barnard Construction of Bozeman, Montana, stage material needed for the Santa Teresa Border Wall Replacement project near the Santa Teresa Port of Entry. The staging area, located at the abandoned Rio Grande Speedway in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, also showcases a scaled down example of what the bollard style wall will look like. (Photos by Mani Albrecht U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Public Affairs Visual Communications Division)
https://media.breitbart.com/media/20...28549850_o.jpgConstruction crews from Barnard Construction of Bozeman, Montana, stage material needed for the Santa Teresa Border Wall Replacement project near the Santa Teresa Port of Entry. The staging area, located at the abandoned Rio Grande Speedway in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, also showcases a scaled down example of what the bollard style wall will look like. (Photos by Mani Albrecht U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Public Affairs Visual Communications Division)
https://media.breitbart.com/media/20...28548930_o.jpgConstruction crews from Barnard Construction of Bozeman, Montana, stage material needed for the Santa Teresa Border Wall Replacement project near the Santa Teresa Port of Entry. The staging area, located at the abandoned Rio Grande Speedway in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, also showcases a scaled down example of what the bollard style wall will look like. (Photos by Mani Albrecht U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Public Affairs Visual Communications Division)
https://media.breitbart.com/media/20...66111327_o.jpgConstruction crews from Barnard Construction of Bozeman, Montana, stage material needed for the Santa Teresa Border Wall Replacement project near the Santa Teresa Port of Entry. The staging area, located at the abandoned Rio Grande Speedway in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, also showcases a scaled down example of what the bollard style wall will look like. (Photos by Mani Albrecht U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Public Affairs Visual Communications Division)
Here are photos of Obama’s border fence that went up in Sunland Park, New Mexico:
https://media.breitbart.com/media/20...6112420644.jpgIn this Jan. 25, 2017, file photo, workers continue work raising a taller fence in the Mexico-U.S. border area separating the towns of Anapra, Mexico, and Sunland Park, N.M. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Friday, Feb. 24, 2017, that it plans to start awarding contracts by mid-April for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico, signaling that he is aggressively pursuing plans to erect “a great wall” along the 2,000-mile border. (AP Photo/Christian Torres, File)
https://media.breitbart.com/media/20...6112160928.jpgIn this Nov. 10, 2016, file photo, workers continue work raising a taller fence in the Mexico-U.S. border area separating the towns of Anapra, Mexico, and Sunland Park, N.M. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Friday, Feb. 24, 2017, that it plans to start awarding contracts by mid-April for President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico, signaling that he is aggressively pursuing plans to erect “a great wall” along the 2,000-mile border. (AP Photo/Christian Torres, File)
https://media.breitbart.com/media/20...9806826487.jpgA worker welds a new fence between the Anapra neighborhood of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and Sunland Park, New Mexico, Thursday, March 30, 2017. The top three feet or so of the fence, which was planned and started before President Donald Trump’s election, are a solid panel of oxidized steel. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
https://media.breitbart.com/media/20...1018913004.jpgA portion of the new steel border fence stretches along the US-Mexico border in Sunland Park, New Mexico, Thursday, March 30, 2017. This fencing just west of the New Mexico state line was planned and started before President Donald Trump’s election, adding to the 650 miles of fences, walls and vehicle barriers that already exist along the nearly 2,000-mile frontier. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
In 2013, Breitbart News noted how the only border fence in Sunland Park was a chain link fence. That fence was replaced by the Obama administration, which began building the bollard style fence in the last year of his presidency. The project was ultimately finished in mid-2017 under Trump.
Most recently, illegal aliens were photographed jumping over a portion of the Sunland Park border fence, crossing onto American soil. The photographs, as Breitbart News reported, went viral online.
Here, illegal aliens can be seen crossing the bollard border fence just last week:
https://media.breitbart.com/media/20...-942795748.jpgA young Mexican helps a compatriot to climb the metal wall that divides the border between Mexico and the United States to cross illegally to Sunland Park, from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on April 6, 2018. U.S. President Donald Trump on April 5, 2018 said he would send thousands of National Guard troops to the southern border, amid a widening spat with his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto. The anti-immigration president said the National Guard deployment would range from 2,000 to 4,000 troops, and he would “probably” keep many personnel on the border until his wall is built — spelling out a lengthy mission. (HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
https://media.breitbart.com/media/20...-942795740.jpgYoung Mexicans help a compatriot to climb the metal wall that divides the border between Mexico and the United States to cross illegally to Sunland Park, from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on April 6, 2018. U.S. President Donald Trump on April 5, 2018 said he would send thousands of National Guard troops to the southern border, amid a widening spat with his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto. The anti-immigration president said the National Guard deployment would range from 2,000 to 4,000 troops, and he would “probably” keep many personnel on the border until his wall is built — spelling out a lengthy mission. (HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
https://media.breitbart.com/media/20...-942795862.jpgA young Mexican helps a compatriot to climb the metal wall that divides the border between Mexico and the United States to cross illegally to Sunland Park, from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on April 6, 2018. U.S. President Donald Trump on April 5, 2018 said he would send thousands of National Guard troops to the southern border, amid a widening spat with his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto. The anti-immigration president said the National Guard deployment would range from 2,000 to 4,000 troops, and he would “probably” keep many personnel on the border until his wall is built — spelling out a lengthy mission. (HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
https://media.breitbart.com/media/20...-942795876.jpgA young Mexican helps a compatriot to climb the metal wall that divides the border between Mexico and the United States to cross illegally to Sunland Park, from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on April 6, 2018. U.S. President Donald Trump on April 5, 2018 said he would send thousands of National Guard troops to the southern border, amid a widening spat with his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto. The anti-immigration president said the National Guard deployment would range from 2,000 to 4,000 troops, and he would “probably” keep many personnel on the border until his wall is built — spelling out a lengthy mission. (HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
https://media.breitbart.com/media/20...-942798384.jpgA young Mexican helps a compatriot to climb the metal wall that divides the border between Mexico and the United States to cross illegally to Sunland Park, from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on April 6, 2018. U.S. President Donald Trump on April 5, 2018 said he would send thousands of National Guard troops to the southern border, amid a widening spat with his Mexican counterpart Enrique Pena Nieto. The anti-immigration president said the National Guard deployment would range from 2,000 to 4,000 troops, and he would “probably” keep many personnel on the border until his wall is built — spelling out a lengthy mission. (HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
The Trump administration has made headway with building new border fences without the help of the Republican-controlled Congress. For example, DHS is underway with a project in Calexico, California, building new bollard fencing in the region to stop illegal immigration.
Meanwhile, the Republican-controlled Congress has stood with Democrats in the way of Trump’s vision for a larger border wall project made from highly effective wall prototypes that he visited last month.
The recent spending bill that congressional Republicans and Democrats sent to Trump, and he signed, actually bars the administration from building a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico using the prototype walls, Breitbart News reported.
Instead, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s Republican leadership tied the Trump administration’s hands on the border, leaving them forced to construct only about 33 new miles of border fence using fencing that has been used by DHS in the past, like the bollard style fencing being erected in New Mexico.
While dealing with an uncooperative Republican leadership, the Trump administration has seen border-crossings tick back up to Obama era levels.
Last month, the Trump administration saw a more than 200 percent increase in illegal immigration when comparing March 2017 to March 2018. Trump was warned this month by allies that his base of supporters is increasingly fed up with a lack progress on ending illegal immigration.
Taking matters into his own hands, Trump has called for 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard troops to be sent to the U.S.-Mexico border to shore up Border Patrol agents so that illegal aliens can be more effectively arrested, detained, and deported.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
