An Air Force veteran who lost three limbs in the Iraq War has built a wall on a short section of the U.S.-Mexico border, delivering on a promise to hundreds of thousands of donors.
Brian Kolfage raised more than $22 million and plans to build the wall mile-by-mile in strategic locations, getting permits from local private landowners.
Construction work started May 17 in the El Paso, Texas, metropolitan area, where an influx of illegal immigrants has drastically escalated in recent months—more than 600 percent in the Border Patrol’s El Paso sector in the first seven months of fiscal 2019, compared with the same period the year before.
The wall has a similar design to that used by the Trump administration, made of steel bollards buried several feet deep in the ground and standing 20 to 25 feet above ground. The first section is about a half-mile long and cost less than $10 million. That appears to be comparable to what the government has generally been paying for its wall construction. Kolfage said, however, that the price spiked due to difficult terrain and ended up less than what the government would have paid. He expects that on flat terrain his nonprofit could build for under $4 million a mile, well below the government’s average cost of about $20 million a mile.
“We can’t release full costs yet because of ongoing contracts we are in bid process with,” his press team said, via a text message.
The wall includes all the perks of the one built by the government, such as lighting, sensors, and access roads for the Border Patrol, the team said.
“Today is the big day!” Kolfage said in a May 26 tweet. “Today is the day the haters, the liberal media, and every doubter, chokes on their words. Check back later.”
The next day, he posted a promotional video showing heavy machinery installing sections of the wall.
Reprinted with permission from - The Epoch Times - by Charlotte Cuthbertson and Petr Svab
