In November last year, a caravan of hundreds of migrants approached the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego and faced old landing-mat border barriers erected decades ago. Border agents say the migrants simply trampled over it as they sought entry into the United States to claim asylum as part of migrant waves that would overwhelm authorities.
The situation on the ground is much different now.
As part of President Trump’s campaign promise to build a wall along the southern border, 14 miles of 18-foot primary steel bollard fencing has been built in San Diego, with a secondary 30-foot steel bollard barrier behind that which is approximately 80 percent complete.
They replace the eight-foot landing mats, which was often supported by a steel mesh behind that. The difference is dramatic.
“It's incredibly different...I’m able to see the old landing mat right next to the bollard and I'm able to see the old mesh right next to the new bollard and the difference is startling,” Douglas Harrison, Chief Patrol Agent of U.S. Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector, told Fox News.
He makes it clear that it’s not a barrier that can be easily scaled: “It’s an intimidating barrier. I'm an old Army guy, I was in the 101st Airborne and I would not try to cross that.”
The project to install 14 miles of replacement barriers began in May 2018 and is now complete, while the secondary project began in February this year -- and includes two miles of secondary wall that did not exist before,It’s part of a project that has, across the whole border, seen 71 miles completed, with an additional 162 currently under construction and an additional 276 miles in the “pre-construction” phase. It’s part of an ambitious plan to get somewhere close to 450-500 miles completed by the end of 2020.
Trump visited the San Diego project in September and spoke of it in glowing terms -- even signing his name on the barrier.
“So it’s a very powerful, very powerful wall — the likes of which, probably, to this extent, has not been built before,” he said.
"But the numbers now are way down," he later added. "And as the wall goes up — literally, as the wall goes up, the numbers go down."
The situation on the ground is much different now.
As part of President Trump’s campaign promise to build a wall along the southern border, 14 miles of 18-foot primary steel bollard fencing has been built in San Diego, with a secondary 30-foot steel bollard barrier behind that which is approximately 80 percent complete.
They replace the eight-foot landing mats, which was often supported by a steel mesh behind that. The difference is dramatic.
“It's incredibly different...I’m able to see the old landing mat right next to the bollard and I'm able to see the old mesh right next to the new bollard and the difference is startling,” Douglas Harrison, Chief Patrol Agent of U.S. Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector, told Fox News.
He makes it clear that it’s not a barrier that can be easily scaled: “It’s an intimidating barrier. I'm an old Army guy, I was in the 101st Airborne and I would not try to cross that.”
The project to install 14 miles of replacement barriers began in May 2018 and is now complete, while the secondary project began in February this year -- and includes two miles of secondary wall that did not exist before,It’s part of a project that has, across the whole border, seen 71 miles completed, with an additional 162 currently under construction and an additional 276 miles in the “pre-construction” phase. It’s part of an ambitious plan to get somewhere close to 450-500 miles completed by the end of 2020.
Trump visited the San Diego project in September and spoke of it in glowing terms -- even signing his name on the barrier.
“So it’s a very powerful, very powerful wall — the likes of which, probably, to this extent, has not been built before,” he said.
"But the numbers now are way down," he later added. "And as the wall goes up — literally, as the wall goes up, the numbers go down."
