The Texas government will resume construction of a wall on the state’s border with Mexico, according Gov. Greg Abbott.
The announcement comes after an extended period of negotiation between Texas officials and private property owners for the construction of infrastructure on their land.
‘More border wall is going up next month,’ said Abbott. ‘It took months to negotiate with private property owners on the border for the right to build on their property.
He added, ‘We now should be building more border wall all of next year.’
The border wall construction project has been under development for months after the Texas Facilities Commission approved a $167 million contract with Southwest Valley Constructors Co. The project is intended to erect a nearly seven-mile border wall in the Del Rio area.
A second contract was also inked with construction company BFBC of Texas to construct a separate seven-mile wall in the Rio Grande Valley.
President Biden’s administration on Wednesday sued the state of Arizona over its construction of a makeshift border wall using shipping containers and razor wire in order to prevent the flow of illegal immigrants — with the administration claiming the state is trespassing on federal lands.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, says that the installation of multi-ton shipping containers, welded shut and topped with razor wire, ‘damage[s] federal lands, threaten[s] public safety, and impede[s] the ability of federal agencies and officials, including law enforcement personnel, to perform their official duties.’
Texas and other states are bracing for the expiration of Title 42 Wednesday, which will go forward after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined Friday to keep the Trump-era policy that restricts the number of asylum seekers the U.S. would allow under the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.