MISSION, Texas (Border Report) — Along Conway Road in this border town is a stockyard that has for years held steel bollards to build the border wall.
During the Biden administration, the supply was dwindling, but when President Trump took office in January the stock began increasing.
And now there are stacks of black bollards in the yard ready to be built.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a visit to the border last month in Santa Teresa, New Mexico, announced that the border wall along the Southwest border from now on would be black.
That’s to deter illegal immigration because she said “when something is painted black it gets even warmer and it will make it even harder for people to climb.”
Noem says the new color is at the behest of Trump.
Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks, who is from the Rio Grande Valley, says the new color is useful for a couple reasons.
“We’re going to paint it black for two reasons: One, black is going to protect the wall from rusting; And two, black gets hotter and makes it more difficult to climb,” Banks said.
A new section of border wall being built about 50 miles west of Mission in Starr County is the first new black wall being constructed in the region.
Last month Noem waived dozens of environmental laws in order to build at least 5 new miles of border wall in Starr and Hidalgo counties through federal wildlife sections that are part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
Environmentalists have told Border Report they oppose the construction of bollards through this sensitive wildlife area.
And migrant advocates decry the use of black, fearing more people will get hurt trying to cross the border wall.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
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