COOLIDGE, Ariz. — An Arizona-based construction company demonstrated Tuesday for two senators, six congressmen, top Army Corps of Engineers officials, and former Kansas State Secretary Kris Kobach how it can install 218 miles of border fence, paved roads, and technology on the southern border at a fraction of the time and cost the Trump administration has planned.
Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, as well as GOP Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Matt Gaetz of Florida, John Joyce of Pennsylvania, Pete Stauber of Minnesota, and Dusty Johnson of South Dakota, watched as a handful of Fisher Industries workers maneuvered a 56-foot-long portion of weathered steel fence into the ground then laid cement.
Four senior Army Corps officials were on site and will report back to the general with a final report, according to a source with direct knowledge of the Corps attendance. The Corps is overseeing all border fence projects and has completed roughly two to three miles of border each month since President Trump took office.
Kobach, who has been rumored as a consideration to permanently head the Department of Homeland Security, was on site watching as workers dropped steel into the ground and cemented.
The lawmakers presence marks the first time politicians have traveled to outside Phoenix to see what the company says it can do.
Cassidy said he chose to make the trip over the Easter recess because too little barrier and border enhancements have gone up since Trump took office in January 2017.
“I think the American people are a little frustrated at the expense and kinda like, ‘When is something going to happen when it comes to securing the southern border,'” Cassidy told the Washington Examiner on site at the demonstration. “And when you hear a story about someone who can do a mile a day with a cheaper cost, at a higher quality — an opportunity to see it for myself. Of course, you wanna check it out. This is a controlled environment. On the other hand, I’m now looking at posters which show how much is typically done in a day’s time as opposed to this in 15 minutes … That’s a good thing to see.”
Joyce said the trip to Arizona is part of his first to the border, and he chose to join the congressional delegation to learn more about the type of barrier currently going up in some regions and how Fisher’s proposal compares.
“What they’re bringing to the table is an action of protection for our country,” said Joyce, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee. “This is what we expect in America. We expect people to be working hard to protect us – to protect the southern border. And Fisher Industries brings something unique to the table and an ability to accomplish that within a time frame that is important to America.”
Two weeks ago, Fisher made a formal, unsolicited offer to Trump administration officials in Washington to build 218 miles of wall along the U.S.-Mexico border for $3.3 billion and have the entire job completed in 13 months, a fraction of the $5.7 billion the White House requested in December for 234 miles.
Fisher met with top Department of Homeland Security officials, along with Democrats and Republicans in Congress, earlier this month to sell the plan.
Last month, Fisher demonstrated for DHS’ top planners and project managers at the same location how it could build 180 feet of wall in two hours.
Replacement and new wall projects have struggled to get underway in Trump’s first two years in office. Between two and three miles of fence have gone up in each month during the Trump administration. House Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., remain adamantly opposed to anything deemed a wall along the southern border — instead emphasizing other security measures like more border guards where necessary, drones, and other high-tech approaches.
The fence’s steel is made in-house and on-site, and would be weathered to avoid rusting and the need for replacement for 75 years, Fisher said. The top of the fence would have spin cameras mounted to it with systems that use facial recognition technology.
The technology would increase fiberoptic cables planted in the ground, capable of detecting and differentiating between human activity, vehicles, tunneling, and animals up to 40 feet away.
Cassidy said the technological aspect to the proposal ought to bring Democratic lawmakers to the table.
“You would like to think that getting value for the taxpayer dollars would bring everybody to the table. And there are some areas where clearly we can all agree that physical barriers are inndicated — urban settings for example. I’ve been to McAllen, Texas, and there, clearly a barrier works … taking people coming here illegally into different directions where they’re more easily apprehended,” said Cassidy. “If all we do is agree on areas where we know barriers work, and we can do it more quickly., and at a lower cost, we should.”
The barrier is proposed for four regions: 42 miles near Yuma, Ariz.; 69 miles near El Paso, Texas; 15 miles near El Centro, Calif.; and 91 miles near Tucson, Ariz.
Each mile would cost $12.5 million. Mobilization or start-up costs are estimated around $200 million and a $360 million five-year warranty is included in the total proposed cost. Fisher said all parts and labor would be American.
The project comes in $2 billion less than budgeted, Fisher said, because he has handled all of the procurement costs himself and came up with a new and cheaper way to build. A patent is pending on the fence installation process, which is not done the same as other wall projects because of a different type of excavator Caterpillar will make specifically for this project.
The government would have to approve the project by May 1 in order to guarantee its completion by June 2020.
Fisher has also secured $3.5 billion in construction surety bonds from Liberty Mutual, should he be unable to finish the project.
Fisher told the Washington Examiner in March he started putting the pieces together for this project in mid-2017. His company was one of the six awarded border wall prototype contracts that year. When the government signaled it wanted to go with a steel, slatted fence, he started procuring the means to build one.
