Presidio
The heavy machinery is moving in. Barely a week after receiving a $2.6 billion federal contract for border wall construction, subcontractors for Fisher Industries have started to build a lay-down site for equipment outside of Presidio.
As the sun rose on Monday morning, two subcontractors from Arizona were looking at plans and figuring out how to grade and pave an area off FM170. A rented maintainer, water truck and front-end loader sat next to three prefab buildings that will become the Fisher offices. The staging site is located on 14 acres of private property owned by Herman Acosta within the Presidio industrial park.
When reached by phone, a man who identified himself as Herman Acosta said that he didn’t know anything about the happenings in Presidio. He later relayed that his son Herman Jr., the site owner, leased the site to Fisher Industries for their offices. In return, Fisher agreed to level off and fence the property. His son declined to comment further on the lease terms.
The subcontractors indicated that the site would be for staging equipment related to the border wall, and they did not know of any plans for worker housing. “There’s not a lot of options,” said one of the subcontractors, who gave his name as Dylan.
The North Dakota headquarters for Fisher Industries confirmed that a lay-down site was being built in Presidio but did not have details about further construction plans. The company has received two federal contracts totalling $3.8 billion dollars to build the border wall in Texas alone. It has similar contracts for border wall construction in New Mexico, Arizona and California.
It’s unclear what land use rights, if any, have been secured by the Army Corps of Engineers. Letters requesting right of entry for construction and surveying were sent to some landowners along the border starting in March and April.
Presidio County passed a resolution in March against the border wall construction, although there are no ordinances that would directly apply. The staging site is being built outside Presidio city limits, which are a patchwork on the north side of town following the sale and transfer of parts of the industrial park. City officials expressed frustration with the federal government over the lack of communication and cooperation.
Looking south across the highway towards the Matasaguas mountains, one of the subcontractors asked if that was Mexico. He then asked how late the border was open and made plans to go to Ojinaga for dinner.