/ Modified jan 19, 2017 5:01 a.m.

7 Miles of Border Wall Being Modernized Near Naco

Old wall is being replaced with bollard-style fencing 18 feet high.

Naco border crossing port The port of entry at Naco, Sonora, 2009.
Courtesy of Customs and Border Protection

The Homeland Security Department is beginning to build a modern section of wall along the Arizona border near New Mexico.

The U.S. Border Patrol and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have begun replacing about seven-and-a-half miles of old landing platform from the Vietnam War that has served as most of the border wall in Naco, Arizona.

The old wall is being torn down and replaced with bollard-style fencing reaching 18 feet high.

The new barrier was planned long before incoming President Donald Trump’s call for a new wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

"We have had plans for the last four years to improve this particular area of the border fence," said Erin Jackson, a Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokeswoman. "This is strictly a replacement for an existing fence in order to improve that structure."

Among the benefits of the new barrier: Suspects on the Mexican side of the border can't sneak up on Border Patrol agents, a prevalent threat in places where the old landing platform mat once served as a wall dividing other cities along the border from their counterparts in Mexico.

The agency expects to have the barrier finished by next June.

Fronteras Desk
This story is from the Fronteras Desk, a collaboration of Southwestern public radio stations, including NPR 89.1. Read more from the Fronteras Desk.
By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona