Having completed “just under 1 mile” of privately-funded wall construction along the U.S.-Mexico border, “We Build The Wall,” a GoFundMe effort raising money for a border wall, triumphantly kept up its requests for dough.
“WE DID IT!!! First privately funded wall is nearly complete!” the project’s leader, Air Force veteran and triple amputee Brian Kolfage wrote on his Facebook page Monday. “DONATE NOW to fund more walls! We have many more projects lined up!”
The announcement was accompanied by a video, which provided little detail but plenty of special effects flash.
Information trickled out in several reports: In an video published by Gateway Pundit, former Kansas Secretary of State and We Build The Wall General Counsel Kris Kobach gave a tour of the wall construction site.
“This is all a moderate grade, but of course, it was too much grade for the Army Corps of Engineers to do, they said you couldn’t build anywhere on this site,” Kobach bragged. Other culture warriors like Steve Bannon and former Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke are also involved with the group.
The wall itself stands on property owned by American Eagle Brick Co. near the border of El Paso, Texas and New Mexico. It was built by Fisher Industries, which is owned by Republican donor and frequent Fox News guest Tommy Fisher, and to which President Donald Trump has reportedly frequently urged the military and DHS officials to reward a federal wall construction contract.
“Why wouldn’t we allow it?,” American Eagle Brick Co. co-owner Jeff Allen told the El Paso Times. “We have dealt with illegals coming across. We have been attacked by illegals coming across. We have been burglarized by illegals. We have drug traffickers coming through here and anyone who is against this is against America.”
The newly constructed wall supposedly closes a gap between the end of existing border wall in El Paso and the steeper sections of Mount Cristo Rey. “We Build The Wall”‘s GoFundMe page had raised $22.5 million in total as of Monday afternoon.
“We’ve been working 24/7 over the holiday weekend, to give America a present on this Memorial Day,” Kobach told Fox News on Monday. “It is almost done,” he said of the segment.
The Washington Post reported earlier this week that the construction site was in Sunland Park, New Mexico, just outside of El Paso.
Before a recent eviction, Sunland Park was home to the campgrounds for a border militia called the United Constitutional Patriots. Since renamed the Guardian Patriots, the group made headlines for its armed mass “arrests” of migrants and asylum-seekers crossing the border in the area.
In April, a spokesperson for the militia, Jim Benvie, live-streamed interviews at the border with Kolfage and Kobach.
“We’re looking at various properties where we need a barrier, and this is one of the properties, we were talking to the landowner here,” Kobach told Benvie, adding: “We want to get the biggest bang for our buck, so to speak, and really make sure we choke off some of the trafficking that’s occurring.”
