After President Joe Biden took office in January and ordered the southern border wall to stop being built, a major hole was left at Border Monument 3, one of the most vulnerable areas of the southern border.
This area, in the El Paso sector, is where Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico meet. The 20-foot gap in this area was allowing illegal aliens and smugglers to easily cross into the U.S., Border Patrol agents told the New York Post.
Richard Barragan, an agent in the El Paso sector, told the Post that “the contractors just stopped,” and pointed to the broken wall in the area after the contractors stopped building the wall after Biden took office. Agents also said that thousands of tons of building materials, including steel, have gathered rust since Biden ordered the stopping of the wall’s construction.
Agents decided to take it upon themselves to fill the gaps left in the wall by using both pieces of material left behind by these federal contractors, and other materials, such as old truck tires. Barragan said that “we have some agents who are good welders, and they put it all together,” and added that “any infrastructure is helpful to us. These are just some of the challenges we face every day.”
El Paso sector chief patrol agent Gloria Chavez said that “the wall enhances my officers’ safety. It delays entry and allows the agent to have the advantage. Additionally, it protects the agent.”
The Post notes that over the last year, attacks on Border Patrol agents by smugglers and drug traffickers have nearly doubled in the El Paso sector, from 23 in fiscal year 2020 to 40 this year so far.
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