Category: The Real Border Fence

Yuha Desert Border Fence Complete – September 2020

Fifteen miles of 30-foot-high primary bollard fence has been completed in the Yuha desert, just west of Calexico, California. Below is a map of the location, showing the area the fence covers. This area was wide open before the new fence was built.

It seemed to me in the area that the Border Patrol agents have much higher morale now than last year when the area was unsecured and fake refugees were crossing every day by the hundreds. Last year, I often heard agents talk about how soon they could retire. Now, it seems like they feel more empowered to do their job and are much more enthusiastic.

Bollard fence is being built all along the border in California, Arizona and New Mexico. There may be some gaps, if so, I will show it when I find them. In general, though, this new bollard fence is a tremendous improvement over the old fence.

Primary Bollard Fence in the Yuha desert 100% completed.

This is panoramic image of the fence on the western side of the Yuha Desert. The fence ends on the left at a ridge at the edge of the Jacumba wilderness. On the far left of the image is part of Signal Mountain, a local landmark across the border in Mexico.

You can click on the panoramic images and expand them with a touch screen for a better view.

Western side of Yuha desert

Secondary fences may be necessary in some places. The secondary fence is to prevent those who may get past the primary fence from escaping into the brush, before a border patrol agent can apprehend him. It does not have to be as formidable or as expensive and the primary fence. It have been reported that any secondary fences necessary will be constructed in the next phase, if Trump is re-elected.

The fence entirely finished in this area, but at time of this photo was taken, they were still working on the border road as here.

Close-up view looking east towards Mount Signal.

The photo below is taken a little further to the east in the middle of the Yuha Desert looking twoards Mt. Signal. The mountain is named Signal Mountain, as you might guess, because they used to send signals from the top of the mountain. Because they were still working on the border road, I could not get closer to the border here.

In the middle of the Yuha Desert looking towards Mt. Signal.

This photo shows the new fence as it crosses over the foothills of Mt. Signal.

This photo was taken next to the the All-American irrigation canal looking towards the west at Mt. Signal.

View from the All-American Canal looking west toward Mt. Signal

IMAGES OF FORMER OBAMA’S “SECURE” BORDER FENCE

These photos reveal the Obama concept of a secure border fence as implemented earlier. This is the fence in the same area, the Yuha Desert, before the new Trump bollard fence was constructed. Many liberals/leftests said the new 30-foot-high bollard fence was just a minor upgrade of the existing, secure Obama fence. Most of the fence along the border was much like this, if there even was a barrier at all, before the Trump fence was built. The Obama fence was one designed to fail and it served that purpose well.

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INITIAL REPORT ON YUHA DESERT

This video is my initial report on the Yuha Desert and surrounding area from July, 2019, before the current bollard fence was started.

This video shows an example of how they used to drive vehicles through the older, existing fence in this area carrying illegal aliens or a load of drugs. The night vision part of video in this clip was recorded by the Border Patrol of El Centro Sector. The new 30-foot bollard fence totally stops vehicles from driving through and greatly reduces the number of illegals crossing on foot.

ILLEGAL-CROSSING WATER STATIONS DISAPPEARING

There used to be 15-18 water stations for illegal aliens that the radical, open-borders organization, Border Angels, put in this area. Most have disappeared, presumably because there are not many illegal crossers in the Yuha Desert any longer. There are still at least 3-4 water stations near the neighboring Jacumba Wilderness, though, where work on a bollard fence has not yet been completed. The new bollard fence will, no doubt, save many lives of those who would otherwise have tried to cross the border illegally.

MORE POSTS ON BORDER FENCE
The Real Border Fence

Jacumba Border Fence Update (Skull Valley) for September, 2020

In early September, a new fence was being built in the Jacumba Wilderness. It’s called the Jacumba Wilderness, because it is an isolated, often extremely rocky area which few people visit, except for hikers and off-roaders. The Jacumba Wilderness is about 11 miles wide. There has been no border barrier at all other than the ruggedness of the natural terrain.

Location of Skull Valley

There are a couple of valleys in the Wilderness, where they are building 30-foot bollard fence. This photo below is of the Skull Valley, named apparently for those who unsuccessfully try to cross in this area. The contractor has built a paved road into the area.

Click on the image to expand the view.

New fence going up in Skull Valley of Jacumba Wilderness

View to the West in Skull Valley in the Jacumba Wilderness
View to the east in Skull Valley in the Jacumba Wilderness.

Below is video from last year of the Jacumba area. A crew is also staging near the town of Jacumba and will be expanding the existing 15-foot high border fence in that area. They are preparing to extend the fence up slopes in that area and probably will be replacing 0.7 miles of old landing mat fence near the small town of Jacumba.

Earlier report on the Jacumba area from 2019

Otay Mountain Border Fence – June 2020 Update

General Semonite promised to extend the border fence right over Otay Mountain last September when Trump visited the border. See the video near the bottom of this post. Work has started recently on this project in San Diego.

This map shows the construction area on the left, represented by a yellow line. It is 1.5 miles long and they are building a double fence on this stretch, so about 3 miles of fence total is being built. There are about 3 miles of bollard fence (shown in green), which has probably been there since the GW Bush era, about 12 years. The new construction will join up with this existing fence. You can photos of the existing fence in the video near the bottom of this post.

On the other side of Otay mountain near Tecate there will still be a stretch of about 7 miles (shown as a red line) that has no border barrier and this very close to Tijuana. It is in a rugged mountainous area and the Tijuana river crisscrosses the border there in one place. I have not heard that there is a project to build a border fence in this area.

Since they have started work in Campo, this is probably the next most obvious area on the California border that could use a fence, but it is probably very difficult to build there. Highway 94 is only about a four-mile hike from the border in this area and serves as a convenient pick-up location for illegal crossers.

These photos were made in June of 2020 from the Mexican side of the border, because access is difficult on the American side. Hanging out at the border on the Mexican side is not necessarily being recommended here, because there may be smuggling going on in the area.

The photos are mostly high resolution panoramas. You can see more detail by clicking on a photo and expanding it on your touch screen.

This photo shows the western side of the new part under construction. It starts at the ridge on the left and continues the existing double fence on the other side of the ridge in Otay Mesa which was built last year. This fence runs behind a hill towards the left (east) and following are some photos of that area.

This is the fence from the other side of the hill. The bollard fence currently stops at the rim of a canyon or gorge. On the right in the distance you can see a short piece of fence that has been started on a ridge east of the canyon.

This is a closer view of the double fence running up to the edge of the canyon.

This is a construction staging area.

This is a close-up of the section on the ridge on the other side of the canyon. It appears that they are building roads into the canyon to support construction of new fence all the way across this large canyon. Blow this image up and you can see two guys working on the fence.

Another closeup view of the fence construction on the ridge from a different angle.

Initial video From November 2019

This video was made in December of 2019, before the new construction started.

Border Fence Construction in Campo, Ca – Update July, 2020

These are some photos of work being done in the area of Campo, California taken July 4th, 2020. The work was just started a couple of months earlier. The new fence building starts to the east of Campo, near the communities of Boulevard and Tiera del Sol. This is a stretch of about 17 miles in total, running from the outskirts of Tecate to the community of Boulevard. Estimate they have constructed around a mile of this stretch, so far.

Several companies are reportedly working on this project. The requirement is to finish it by December, 2020. The terrain near Campo is a little rugged and it will be one of the last, most obviously vulnerable stretches on the California border to get to get a new, 30-foot bollard fence. The illegal traffic is heavy now, because the smugglers can see the area being closed off soon. No fence will be perfect, but they know that life is about to become a lot more difficult for them.

I call it a fence, because it does not look like a wall and this kind of bollard fence have existed on the border for 12-15 years and it has always been called a “fence”. The Border Patrol has a lot of experience with this kind of fence and this is what they wanted, only they wanted it to be higher in many places, up to 30-feet high.

Most of the older bollard fence is only 15 feet high. It is much to Trump’s credit that he approved what the Border Patrol told him they needed and did not try to force something else on them for his own personal political reasons. The Border Patrol has almost 100-years experience on the border. What they have always lacked is not the experience and knowledge, but the financial and political support that they have been enjoying recently under Trump. There is no reason whatsoever to be embarrassed about a 30-foot fence, constructed of steel bollards filled with top-grade concrete and rebar.

The old fence in the area around Campo is mostly 10-foot-high, landing mat fence in very bad condition and in some places there is no fence at all, except maybe for barbed wire. About 10 percent of the fence, though, is the old 15-18 foot high bollard fence from the George W. Bush era. Highway 80 and Interstate 5 run near the border near Campo. So, it is a convenient pick-up place for illegal crossers.

The land in this area around Tierra del Sol, close to the border, is privately owned and posted with “no trespassing” signs. For that reason the photos are taken from a distance.

These photos are high resolution. If you want to see more detail, click on the photo and expand the image on your touch screen.

Tierra del Sol

To the left in this image the fence is the old, Bush bollard fence. Much shorter than the new Trump fence. The old fence is pretty good fence. I do not see them tearing down the old bollard fence anywhere. They may leave it there and add a second fence behind it at some point, as they did in San Diego. In San Diego, the first fence is 18-foot bollards and the second fence is 30-foot bollards. It is an awesome double fence, completed last year, 16 miles long.

New fence under construction near Tierra del Sol
New fence under construction near Tierra del Sol
New fence under construction near Tierra del Sol

Smith Canyon

Smith Canyon has always been wide open, with no fence at all. It is a pretty big engineering challenge. Presumably, this will be a 30-foot high bollard fence all the way across the canyon. We shall soon see.

Smith Canyon, view towards the west.

The fence on the rim on the other side of the canyon is also an old, Bush-era bollard fence a few hundred yards long and 15-18 feet tall. There are a number of these short segments of older bollard fence in this area. The new fence will be 17 miles of continuous bollard fence.

West side of Smith Canyon, viewed from the east rim (close-up)
View of the east side of Smith Canyon from the west rim.

El Paso Taco Shop

El Paso, means “the pass”, or in other words, the place to cross. It is one of the few places to eat in Campo. Border Patrol agents often eat there. Hopefully, soon the name will have to be changed to “No Paso!” when this fence is finished.

I passed by this Taco shop many times, without thinking about the apparent humorous, subversive intent of the name. For many years, Campo has been one of the most convenient places to illegally pass into the United States on the California border.

To see more posts on the border fence, go to this link:
The Real Border Fence archive

Earlier Video

Lukeville / Organ Pipe Border Fence Report – Jan, 2020

This is a progress report on the border fence building project in the area of Lukeville and the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument area. About 43 miles of new 30-foot-high bollard fence is being constructed there at this time.

Organ Pipe National Monument