Texas paying $224 million for 9 miles of border wall

RIO BRAVO, Texas – Four and a half hours from the southwest border, decisions are being made in Austin about a $224 million contract given to a company 1,600 miles away in North Dakota to build nine miles of the Texas border wall.

The Texas Facilities Commission held a meeting January 4 to discuss plans for a 30-foot wall with an 8-foot trench. City of Rio Bravo Commissioner Amanda Aguero says she was shocked when Fox San Antonio contacted her about the state plan to put part of the wall in her district.

“Nobody has reached out to us,” Commissioner Aguero says. “Not only is the amount of money something crazy, but I honestly think that if they could just come down and talk to the people that were affected, how do you create a formula of a solution that you think is going to fix a problem that you are not familiar with? Because you do not live here.”

A woman who did not want to be identified has lived near the border in this area all her life. She told us in Spanish the flow of migrants running down her street is tiring, but her neighbors don’t believe a wall will stop the problem for long. She also worries about the safety of the fence. The company awarded the contract, Fisher Sand & Gravel, built a similar wall in Mission, Texas, just a few years ago. That wall is now falling apart.

When Fox San Antonio asked the Texas Facilities Commission what changes were ordered to ensure the company’s new structure in Rio Bravo won’t fail, the Commission wrote in a statement: “The Texas Facilities Commission dictates the design requirements. They meet the exact engineering requirements utilized by the federal government in its construction of the border wall all along the U.S./Mexico Board and as dictated by the [U.S.] Army Corps of Engineers.”

That doesn’t provide peace of mind for the Mayor of Rio Bravo, who also says he knew nothing about the contract. He also expressed concerns about the condition of the wall in Mission.

“Right now, it's sinking,” explains Mayor Gilbert Aguilar. “And if it doesn't get fixed, it might fall, right? And you're talking about a three-story wall? That's huge. So it's something that is very alarming, and to give a contract to the same contractor.”

Meantime, a Texas Facilities Commission member is questioning why the most-qualified contractor wasn’t chosen.

“One of five qualified, and they were the third-most qualified - so how was the decision made there?” Commissioner Larry Long asks.

The $24 million price tag per mile is also raising eyebrows.

“Poland has put up a wall that is 220 miles long. They did it for $440 million dollars,” Texas Facilities Commission Commissioner William Allensworth says.

"HELP ME UNDERSTAND WHY OURS COST TEN TIMES AS MUCH PER MILE TO GO THROUGH SOUTH TEXAS?"

"IT'S A GREAT QUESTION BUT NOT ALL WALLS ARE CREATED EQUAL"

"AS YOU SAID NOT ALL WALLS ARE EQUAL."

We called Fisher Sand and Gravel numerous times for a comment. We are still waiting for their spokesperson to return the calls.

Fox San Antonio reached out to Amy Patrick from Apollo LLC Forensic Engineering. She’s a civil and structural engineer and a wall expert who analyzes and cleans up design disasters.

We asked her what can be done to keep this new part of the wall from falling apart like the one in Mission.

AMY PATRICK, APOLLO LLC FORENSIC ENGINEERING, ""

To build the wall, the Texas Facilities Commission must first get residents of El Cenizo and Rio Bravo to sell.

“The biggest problem that we face is the negotiation with those landowners,” a Texas Facilities Commission staff member said during the meeting last month. “We are dealing with thousands of property owners. Unlike Arizona, which is thousands of federal land, we are dealing with Spanish land grants. It is a maze we never anticipate.”

City of Laredo Councilwoman Melissa Cigarroa owns land by the river.

“This has been land that has been held for generations,” Councilwoman Cigarroa says.

She says the Texas Facilities Commission, in order to accomplish Governor Greg Abbott’s goal of a border wall, is preying on low-income Latino landowners.

“It is not just Mexican-American landowners that have land here,” Councilwoman Cigarroa says. “There are also plenty of Anglo, big-time landowners with 1,000 acres or more. And he's not complaining about those landowners. He's having the most trouble getting access to land from them. You can go wish all you want - and Governor Abbott, you're not taking our land.”

The contract is still in the process of being approved and signed by the Texas Facilities Commission.

Four years ago I travelled as part of a fellowship to Croatia and Germany to see how Europe was dealing with the wave of immigrants coming to the EU borders. This is one of several stories I did on how authorities were slowing down the wave of immigrants.