15 Miles of Additional Border Wall Completed in California

Border Patrol officials announce the completion of a 15-mile section of new border wall in
U.S. Customs and Border Protection video screenshot
Bob Price

Contractors completed 15 miles of a new border wall system in the El Centro Sector of Southern California, Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott announced. Border Patrol agents who work in the sector told Breitbart Texas previously completed sectors reduced crime in the area and made it safer to patrol.

In a tweet on Friday, U.S. Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott said, “Today, we completed a 15-mile section of border wall system in El Centro Sector that will provide much-needed infrastructure to help USBP agents secure the border.”

It is not clear from the announcement if this is a new border wall system, or a replacement for outdated technology. Regardless, the new bollard-style wall provides increased security, technology surveillance, lighting, and all-weather roads to improve the response time of Border Patrol agents to crossings in the area.

Last summer, Breitbart Texas reported that the completion of new border wall construction in the El Sentro Sector made the area safer for agents to patrol and reduced crime in the area.

“We’ve had people throw Molotov cocktails over the old landing mat fence and it was dangerous because we couldn’t see through it like we can with [President Donald Trump’s] new border barrier. Here in El Centro, we have the highest stretch of border wall on the entire Southwest border. Trump’s new wall section is 30-feet high,” Border Patrol Agent Mike Matzke said in his capacity as president of the National Border Patrol Council Local 2554.

“New sections of Trump’s wall have been built and anyone claiming that a 30-foot barrier that replaced a 10-foot high sheet metal fence isn’t new barrier doesn’t know what they are talking about,” the veteran Border Patrol agent explained. “The old legacy landing mat fence in our sector wasn’t effective and really bad people were jumping all day and night.”

Map of new and existing border barriers courtesy of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Map of new and existing border barriers in Southern California and southwestern Arizona courtesy of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“Assaults on Border Patrol agents in the area have dropped 65 percent since Trump built it,” Matzke concluded. “Illegal entries in the area are down 75 percent since Trump built it.”

The new border wall system previously completed in Calexico, California, was the first section of replacement wall to be completed, El Centro Sector Assistant Chief Patrol Agent Joshua C. Devack said in a video presentation in October 2019 and reported by Breitbart Texas.

“Since the border wall system was completed in this area, local business and commerce is thriving and areas once considered dangerous are now secure,” Devack stated. “In addition, overall crime in this area has been significantly reduced thus making our community a safer place to live and work.”

CBP officials report the completion of 175 miles of new border wall systems along the U.S. border with Mexico. In the process, contractors utilized 245,000 tons of steel and 360,000 cubic yards of concrete.

Border Patrol agents previously told Breitbart Texas they like the new bollard walls because they are difficult to climb and provide agents with visibility to what is happening on the Mexican side of the wall.

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.

(Disclosure: Breitbart News has worked closely with the National Border Patrol Council to help bring a voice to Border Patrol agents, funded the funeral of a slain agent through the Council, and helped to start a podcast for the agents. Breitbart Border/Cartel Chronicles Director Brandon Darby has received an award from the Council for his work on behalf of Border Patrol Patrol agents and has worked with the Council on a number of projects.)

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