Some 63 miles of new fencing made up of concrete-filled steel poles is set for construction along the Arizona-Mexico border.
As proposed by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, the structure would replace current fencing which the department has deemed out of date and in poor condition.
The new fencing will be at least 18 to 30 feet in height, and will stretch from Pima to Cochise counties.
An announcement released by Paul Enriquez with the U.S. Border Patrol said the project will also include “the improvement or construction of roads, installation of lighting, and installation of other detection technology.”
Planning for the project follows on the heels of an earlier announcement from the CBP regarding the imminent replacement of just under 7 miles of a bollard border near Yuma.
That project will replace current pedestrian fencing and vehicle barriers there.
The 63-mile project will go up in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, which runs along the border with Mexico.
The project has sparked the opposition of the Sierra Club, which says new fencing could prove detrimental to the area’s ecosystem.
In a statement, Dan Mills, representing the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter Borderlands Program, said the construction of additional walls in the area “will further harm endangered species like the Sonoran pronghorn and Mexican gray wolf.”
The CBP has announced it will accept public comments on the project until July 5.
By Garry Boulard
