The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers allocated $10.7 billion to build barriers along the nation’s 2,000-mile southern border while President Donald Trump was in office, but most of the barriers lack key features such as lighting, cameras and access roads for patrols, according to a new report.
A U.S. Government Accountability Office report found the Corps obligated $10.7 billion to support the border barrier efforts from fiscal years 2018 through 2020, almost all for construction contracts. More than 70% of the funds for construction contracts were Department of Defense funds made available after Trump’s 2019 National Emergency Declaration.
During that time, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded 39 construction contracts, primarily DOD-funded, to build more than 600 miles of border barriers.
About 32% of the miles to be built under these contracts were new barriers in areas where no barriers had previously existed. The remaining 68% of the miles were to replace existing barriers.
When President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, he paused all of the border contracts he was able to by law. At that point, the Corps reported it had completed about 450 miles of barriers. Most were incomplete.
Less than 69 miles, or about 15%, were for completed barrier systems, according to the report.
Since then, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security updated a plan for use of border barrier funds. Homeland Security intends to use its funding to continue addressing safety hazards, identify actions to address environmental damage from past barrier construction and install lighting and technology such as cameras, according to the report.
Some Corps contracts didn’t go through a competitive bidding process. Four valued at more than $4 billion were awarded without full and open competition, according to the report.
“We also found that [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers] structured many of its DOD-funded awards to prioritize the construction of barrier panels, rather than the full barrier system,” according to the report. “All 13 DOD-funded contracts were required to complete some or all of the barrier panel construction by the end of 2020-21. For example, in some cases, these contracts were awarded or modified to extend deadlines so that contractors could prioritize barrier panel construction, resulting in longer time frames to produce a complete barrier system.”
