Border wall construction begins in New Mexico

SANTA TERESA, N.M. (KFOX/CNN) – Construction on a U.S.-Mexico border barrier replacement began on Monday in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

The plan is to replace smaller, existing vehicle barriers with a bollard-style fence. It will measure 18 to 30 feet high and stretch 20 miles westward.

It’s expected to be complete in March of next year and will cost some $73 million.

Despite President Trump’s promise that Mexico would pay for the wall, the funds will come out of the Customs and Border Protection’s budget.

Officials spoke about the project at Monday’s groundbreaking. El Paso Border Patrol Sector Chief Arron Hull explained, “This project is underway. This is the beginning, in this sector, of the

President’s border wall – very much so, yes. The time is now. The numbers are going back up. It’s a logical step for us to take and time for us to take it.”

During the presidential campaign, then-candidate Trump promised that his border barrier would be a wall, not a fence. And while the structure in New Mexico may look like a fence, officials insist it is, in fact, a wall, calling it a quote “very serious structure.”