Trump administration plans to build 10 miles of new barrier along San Diego-Mexico border

Alexandra Mendoza, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Sep 28, 2025

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The Trump administration plans to construct nearly 10 miles of new wall system along the San Diego-Mexico border, waiving certain environmental laws and regulations to do so, officials said.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem issued the waiver “to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads,” according to a Federal Register notice posted on Tuesday.

The projects involve the construction of new barriers near the Tecate and Otay Mesa ports of entry, as well as miles of improved infrastructure — such as roads, lighting and cameras — along existing barriers from the Pacific Ocean to Jacumba Hot Springs.

It is being funded by H.R. 1, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, in which Customs and Border Protection was given $46.5 billion through fiscal 2029 to be used broadly on border construction and maintenance.

“President (Donald) Trump is delivering on the mandate given by the American people to secure our southern border,” CBP Assistant Commissioner Hilton Beckham said in a statement.

Between Otay Mesa and Tecate, construction is planned for 7.6 miles of a 30-foot-tall primary border barrier with an anti-climb top, as well as related system features. The starting point is approximately 3 miles west of the Tecate Port of Entry. Plans also include an additional 1.3 miles of primary border barrier about 3.5 miles east of Tecate.

Farther west, the agency also plans to build a 0.84-mile secondary 30-foot-tall border barrier that will include anti-climb features and automated vehicle gates. It will be located 3.2 miles east of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry.

The budget will also cover the installation and maintenance of 51.5 miles of border barrier systems in areas where fences already exist. These may include surveillance cameras, access roads, patrol roads, lighting poles, utility shelters and other features.

For most of 2024, the Border Patrol’s San Diego sector was the busiest along the Southwest border in migrant encounters. Compared to last year, however, the numbers have plummeted significantly. Last month, the sector recorded 715 encounters, a 95% decrease from August 2024.

Noem emphasized the shift at the border in the Federal Register notice but added that “more can and must be done,” pointing out that the San Diego sector is an area where people often try to enter the country illegally.

The Center for Biological Diversity, a national nonprofit conservation organization, voiced its opposition to waiving laws and regulations, including the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, to build more border barriers.

“This waiver is another senseless attack on the wildlife and communities of California’s borderlands,” Laiken Jordahl, Southwest conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement.

“Border crossings are at historic lows, yet the Trump administration is declaring a bogus emergency and tossing aside decades of hard-won environmental protections to fast-track wall construction. They’re robbing border communities and endangered wildlife of equal protection under the law to steamroll more walls through sensitive ecosystems.”

In July, the group sued the Trump administration over its use of the waiver at the Arizona border. Jordahl said in an interview that the group’s attorneys will evaluate whether to pursue another legal challenge this time regarding the California border.

The administration began closing gaps along the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego as soon as Trump took office, using previously appropriated funds.

In January, construction resumed to close a 100-foot gap and replace a deteriorating border fence in the southwestern area of Friendship Park, located between Playas de Tijuana and Imperial Beach.

In April, Noem issued an initial waiver to allow construction of a total of 2.5 miles of new barriers in three areas along the San Diego border: Smuggler’s Gulch, Otay Mesa and Jacumba Hot Springs.

The Border Patrol announced in July that construction on Smuggler’s Gulch was complete. Construction is underway on a stretch of Otay Mesa, and the work in Jacumba Hot Springs is scheduled to begin at a later date, a spokesperson said.

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