TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The new border wall stretches 23 miles through the Tucson sector, where construction crews are replacing existing barriers with more advanced infrastructure. Last month, the Trump administration put over $606 million towards the Tucson sector's Smart Wall project. Overall, they’re spending over $4 billion on improvements to the southwest border.
"The One Big Beautiful Bill is going to help implement the president's strong border agenda," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
The Smart Wall system comprises steel and waterborne barriers, patrol roads, cameras, and other advanced security tools, all designed for long-term border security.
"To ensure that the United States border can not just be safe and secure under President Trump, but will be safe and secure long into the future under any president who takes the Oval Office," Leavitt said.
The One Big Beautiful Bill, Leavitt said, also tripled the budget for deporting undocumented migrants, allowing Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hire more personnel and expand detention facilities.
"They can hire more men and women, and they have the beds and the detention facility," Leavitt said.
Migrant encounters plummeted dramatically in the Tucson area. In fiscal year 2024, Customs and Border Protection encountered over 510,000 migrants in the region. So far this fiscal year, encounters have dropped to just over 56,000 migrants.
Nationwide, last fiscal year, CBP said it encountered over 2.9 million migrants at the border. So far this fiscal year, they said that number has plummeted to over 665 thousand.
Meanwhile, both parties in Arizona, including Governor Katie Hobbs, Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, and Congressman Juan Ciscomani, have supported measures to secure the border this year.
John Mennell with CBP said the investment serves a strategic purpose.
"Constructing and investing in border barriers, along with the full system attributes, allows for agents to funnel illegal traffic, to include human smuggling and narcotics, through the ports of entry for identification, detection, and a successful law enforcement resolution," Mennell said in an email to KGUN9 News reporter Andrew Christiansen.
However, Eamon Harrity, the wildlife program manager for Sky Island Alliance, said the construction is happening in an area where he said has minimal crossing activity.
"That's a lot of money we're spending on a wall in an area where our cameras have detected, on average, five people a month," Harrity said.
Harrity argues the wall disrupts migration patterns, plant life, and the Santa Cruz River’s water.
"It's stunning. It harbors incredible biodiversity from insects to plants, on up to mammals," Harrity commented about the area where the wall is being constructed.
He believes the existing surveillance infrastructure is sufficient for monitoring the area. Construction, he said, is already disrupting the area.
"Surveillance towers that have been in place for more than a decade can do a perfectly good job keeping an eye on the landscape. Walls are not necessary here," Harrity said.