New $70 million contract to help continue construction of Trump’s border wall is handed out

A new $70 million contract has been awarded to extend President Donald Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border and “close critical openings” after the Biden administration froze the project.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued the contract to Granite Construction Co., a California-based firm listed on the S&P 600.

The heavy civil construction contractor has been tasked with extending the border wall by seven miles in a section of the Rio Grande Valley Sector in Hidalgo County, Texas.

The contract, which was announced Saturday and valued at almost $70.3 million, is funded by CBP's Fiscal Year 2021 funds.

Standing at a portion of the border in Arizona, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on a video on X Sunday that the wall's construction commenced “today” to ensure the Trump administration can “continue to make America safe again.”

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Border Patrol said in a statement that the area, which was only partially built under Trump’s direction, “experiences large numbers of individuals and narcotics being smuggled into the country illegally.”

“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,” it added.

Trump’s promise to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border was a defining policy while on the campaign trail before the 2016 election. Around 458 miles of border wall was built during the president’s first term, though much replaced existing structures that already needed repairs.

The initiative builds upon Trump’s immigration crackdown since returning to the White House in Janaury.

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“Securing our Borders” and “Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border of the United States,” were among a raft of executive orders signed at the beginning of his second term.

The president directed the Department of Homeland Security to use whatever means necessary to achieve “full operational control of the southern border.”

To promote Trump’s hardline deportation plan, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard took an aerial tour of the border by helicopter above Eagle Pass earlier this month.

The White House hailed the “Trump Effect” and said that the president’s return to office has been directly linked to fewer illegal crossings.

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Roughly 8,300 people were apprehended last month during Trump’s first full month in office, according to the president’s announcement on TruthSocial on March 2. That would put crossings at its lowest level since 2000.

“The Invasion of our Country is OVER," Trump declared.

The Border Patrol made 21,593 arrests during January, down from 47,316 in December. Arrests had been falling sharply since well before Trump returned to office from an all-time high of 250,000 in December 2023.