PHOENIX.
In the desert lands that frame the border of Mexico and the United States, workers work non-stop on the construction of the wall that President Donald Trump promised.
With just over a month after Trump leaves the White House, workers deployed in Columbus, New Mexico, are moving dirt and laying foundations at a forced march.
We do 400 feet a day (122 meters). They haven’t said they’re going to stop. If they have already spent, how are they going to leave it incomplete? ”Said a worker.
At that rate, workers could build 5.5 kilometers more until January 19, the last day of Trump’s mandate, before whose government there were already 548.6 km of barrier on that border that measures more than three thousand kilometers.
During his administration, 658.1 km were raised, far from the 1,187.7 km he offered to build, according to data from the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), as of November 20.
Only 94.8 km are new construction.
The advancement of the wall – which Trump promised “big and beautiful” – has cost $ 15 billion. And although for now it is a promise halfway through, it was enough to break the dreams, and also the bones, of many migrants who ventured to jump.
A crane moves a kind of metal grid to bury it in a narrow trench 2.4 meters deep. It is the foundation for the bars that will be placed in the next shift, explained the worker.
Between the old and the new wall, only 35% of the 3,145 km of border is covered.
I have seen here gentlemen with broken heads, broken arms, with both broken feet. People who have entered here in a wheelchair, badly damaged by the blows from the wall. And there are not two or three, there are many, “he added.
This is witnessed by Alejandro Calderón, a 55-year-old Cuban who, forced by the restrictions of the covid-19 pandemic, runs a shelter that welcomes those who, like him, seek to reach the United States.
The injured are often returned to Mexico without receiving medical attention from the US side.
In the conditions that he is, they return him here and then we, without conditions, because we don’t have doctors, we have to give them first aid ”, said the engineer by profession.
Domingo Barahona, a 45-year-old Guatemalan, failed in two attempts to enter the United States. Refugee in Puerto Palomas (Chihuahua), will try a third.
Days ago he had to see two other undocumented immigrants with exposed leg bones after throwing themselves through the barrier. “During immigration from the United States, they didn’t even get an aspirin,” he said.
The man cries when he remembers his 12-year-old son, who is waiting for him at home, and the murder of his police brother, victim of revenge by “bad people.”
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