Fisher Sand & Gravel has secured a $309 million contract from U.S. Customs and Border Protection to construct a new stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Arizona, marking the second major award of President Donald Trump’s second term focused on resuming construction efforts along the southern border.

The Dickinson, North Dakota-based contractor will construct approximately 27 miles of barrier in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, which falls within the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector. According to a June 18 news release from CBP, the work will aim to “close critical openings in the border wall” using funds appropriated in fiscal year 2021. The project revives construction that had been halted during the Biden administration.

This award follows the administration's earlier contract with Granite Construction, which won a $70 million deal to build about 7 miles of new wall in Hidalgo County, Texas.

In a move to further accelerate construction, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued a new waiver that will allow up to 17 additional miles of border wall to be built in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley Sector. The waiver clears the way for construction to proceed without the constraints of environmental regulations such as the National Environmental Policy Act.

“This is the fifth waiver that has been signed by Secretary Noem for border wall construction and demonstrates DHS’s continued commitment to ensuring the expeditious construction of physical barriers necessary to secure the southern border of the United States,” the agency said in the release.

While the Trump administration is pushing forward with federal construction efforts, Texas has scaled back its own border wall initiative. According to The Texas Tribune, the state has only completed about 8% of the 805 miles it had planned, spending $3 billion in the process. That’s a small fraction of the ambitious project championed by Gov. Greg Abbott, which has seen limited progress despite significant funding.
Fisher Sand & Gravel previously gained national attention during Trump’s first term when it was selected for several controversial wall contracts. The company has been a key player in efforts to reinitiate wall construction halted by executive action under President Biden. With the revival of federal funding streams and executive waivers, Fisher's latest award signals a continued prioritization of physical border barriers under the current administration’s immigration policy agenda.

Originally reported by Julie Strupp in Construction Dive.