Pro-Trump group building border wall with private funds is told to halt construction

A group that’s building a border wall with private funds at the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas was told to halt construction, officials say.

We Build the Wall, a Florida-based group that boasts $25 million in donations, wants to construct the fencing to support President Donald Trump’s efforts to create the barrier on the southern U.S. border. The group has already built approximately one mile of fencing in New Mexico near El Paso, Texas, The New York Times reported.

Now the group wants to build a second wall that’s about three miles long and 18 feet tall along the Rio Grande near McAllen, Texas.

We Build the Wall submitted “general information” last week for the project to the International Boundary and Water Commission, foreign affairs officer Sally Spener told McClatchy in an email. The U.S.-Mexico commission oversees issues that arise from boundary, water, sanitation and flood control treaties between the countries.

The general information from Fisher Industries, which is contracted for the project, included a six-page document with broad floodplain information and a one-page summary of the project.

The group is clearing the private riverfront property in Mission, Texas, to make way for the wall, KGBT reported.

“This will be the first border barrier that can be built in a flood plain and it’s built to withstand the floods and there is nothing that (has) been built like it,” Brian Kolfage, founder of We Build the Wall, told KGBT. “And I think it’s going to change the way these border barriers are built in Texas.”

On Friday, the commission asked for more information about the project to determine whether it met requirements in the 1970 Boundary Treaty, according to an email obtained by McClatchy. The email was sent to a civil engineer for Fisher Industries and Kris Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state who’s on the group’s advisory board.

A part of the review by the International Boundary and Water Commission is to determine whether the wall will obstruct waterways or violate the treaty with Mexico, according to the email.

“We asked that they not continue construction until our review process has been completed,” Spener said.

Asked about ramifications of not following the request and whether construction was continuing, Spener told McClatchy that personnel for the commission hadn’t visited the site on Monday.

But Kolfage indicated on Twitter that the group hadn’t stopped.

“Dozers are burning and churning!” Kolfage tweeted.

Kolfage said the group isn’t building the wall yet and is merely preparing to start construction when it receives approval, according to KXAN.

“There’s not been a stop order. There has been no legal injunction,” Kolfage told KXAN. “The IBWC has no control over us clearing sugar cane. Any private property owner does not need IBWC’s permission to cut down sugar cane. We can go burn it down if we want to. They have no control.”

This story was originally published November 19, 2019 at 4:54 PM.