Border Patrol scrambles to fill gap in wall left by Biden administration

When President Biden took office in January, his administration ordered an immediate halt on the construction of a 30-foot high border fence, leaving a gaping hole at one of the most vulnerable stretches of the US-Mexican border.

"The contractors just stopped," said Richard Barragan, a Border Patrol agent in the El Paso Sector, pointing to the broken wall and a brace leftover by federal contractors still hanging from the iron fence when they hastily abandoned construction in January. Along the nearly 2,000-mile southern border, thousands of tons of steel and other building materials have gathered rust since the order to halt construction, Border Patrol agents said.