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U.S. NEWS Monday 18 noveMber 2019
Border wall fundraiser claims new

construction in Texas

By NOMAAN MERCHANT
Associated Press
HOUSTON (AP) — Claims
that a private group has
started building its own
border wall in South Texas
were questioned this week
by some longtime residents
worried that the construc-
tion could cause flooding
and violate treaty obliga-
tions between the U.S. and
Mexico. The organizers of
We Build the Wall, a non-
profit launched in Decem-
ber to support President This Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019, photo and provided by the National Butterfly Center shows what the
Donald Trump’s signature center's director, Marianna Wright, says is land cleared in preparation to build a separation wall
promise of a border bar- on the border of the United States and Mexico in in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas.
rier, said this week in a Associated Press
Facebook video that they Rio Grande often swells kilometers) that Trump has the University of Texas Rio
were going to build a 3.5- and can knock down struc- called for building by the Grande Valley, said con-
mile (5.6-kilometer) project tures closest to the river. A end of next year. struction not done carefully
on private land in the Rio large fence or wall could Terence Garrett, a pro- could “cause major, major
Grande Valley, at Texas’ also change flood patterns fessor of public affairs at flooding.”q
southernmost point. and endanger existing
In the video, a construc- homes and property.
tion worker claims the proj- The International Bound-
ect would be as close as ary and Water Commission
25 feet (7.6 meters) away was set up by the U.S. and
from the Rio Grande, with Mexico under treaties that
a wall and concrete road. define the border and how
That’s much closer than the river is used. Anyone
most government-built wall building a fence within the
in the Rio Grande Valley. river flood plain is supposed
“This is going to cause cat- to submit plans and design
astrophic flooding to all the calculations to the com-
surrounding properties on mission. Spokeswoman
the U.S. and Mexico side,” Sally Spener said the com-
said Marianna Trevino mission received an email
Wright, executive director Wednesday night with
of the National Butterfly “some general informa-
Center, a nonprofit that is tion” from Fisher Industries,
up the river from the con- a construction company
struction site. that built the group’s half-
We Build the Wall has raised mile section near El Paso.
over $25 million. So far, the Asked about whether the
group has built about half project met the commis-
a mile (0.8 kilometers) of sion’s guidelines, Spener
wall near El Paso. said, “We have not re-
The video, which seeks ceived the documentation
more donors for the group, that would be required to
shows an excavator clear- make a determination.”
ing brush from the river- The U.S. Border Patrol also
bank. The video’s claims says it was notified but did
could not immediately be not consult with We Build
verified. We Build the Wall the Wall on the design and
founder Brian Kolfage, who location of any construc-
is seen in the video, did tion. And Hidalgo County
not respond to several re- officials said they could
quests for comment made not immediately confirm
through a spokeswoman, whether Fisher Industries
and the video appeared or We Build the Wall had
to have been taken off the sought a permit.
group’s Facebook page The Border Patrol and oth-
Friday. Unlike at other parts er government agencies
of the border, the U.S. gov- are building small portions
ernment in the Rio Grande of new wall in at least two
Valley doesn’t build barri- sites in the valley. The U.S.
ers at the edge of the land government is still well short
border. That’s because the of the 500 new miles (800