Half-Mile GoFundMe Border Wall Ordered to Leave Gate Open Indefinitely After Blocking Access to a Historic Monument

The group selected the section of the New Mexico border to build the wall because it was “the number one most important mile to close,” said Steve Bannon, the former strategist for President Trump and advisory board chair for the project.

But in a statement, US Customs and Border Protection said the “project is not connected to our efforts,” and that it had already prioritized building border barriers in locations that “will most impact border security operations.” The site where North Dakota–based construction company Fisher Industries built the crowdfunded wall on private land was “not prioritized under current funding,” the agency said.

Kuczmanski said the international agency had been made aware the wall was being built near federal property but was told the project would remain on private land. Then on June 2, We Build the Wall organizers submitted a letter and “a couple of drawings” requesting to build a gate across federal property.

“It was not a complete application packet,” she said.

The next day, IBWC officials learned that We Build the Wall’s construction crew had already poured a cement slab on federal property. The gate was immediately shut upon completion, Kuczmanski said, cutting off access for the agency, its security agents who patrol the area, and the public.

IBWC officials asked that the gate be left open and attorneys for the project said in response that “‘it will be handled immediately,’ but it was never opened,” she said.

In response, IBWC commissioner Jayne Harkins decided on Monday afternoon to prop open a large gate installed in the barrier. The gate, constructed on roughly 33 feet of federal property, had blocked officials from accessing a levee and dam, and cut off public access to a historic monument known as Monument One, the first in a series of obelisks that mark the US–Mexico border from El Paso to Tijuana.

We Build the Wall locked the private gate on June 6. After USIBWC made “repeated requests” to unlock and open the gate, law enforcement officers removed the lock and opened the gate to allow for dam maintenance. The agency is now requiring that the gate be kept open “during business hours” and locked at night “due to security concerns.”

The IBWC will maintain “operational control” of when the gate is open or shut. Meanwhile, We Build the Wall has accused the agency of “overreach.”

L UNIVERSAL/EELG (GDA via AP Images)

Most of the crowdfunded wall is situated on private property owned by a brick company. But when a sliding gate attached to the wall is closed, it crosses into federal land and blocks off a federally owned road, Kuczmanski tells TIME. “We have operational needs that we need to maintain, and with it being closed, and them not giving us access, we’re locked out of our own property.”

“It prohibited us from doing our operation and mission, maintaining the levee, we have to do vegetation control, dam maintenance… we have to have oversight of our area and we were locked out of that for days,” Kuczmanski told Business Insider.

She said that We Build the Wall decided to build the gate without submitting a permit application with required documentation about the project, a process that typically takes around three to six months. “Considering we had asked them to cease operations and we were confident they would do that and abide by the rules, we were pretty shocked they went ahead with construction, which is not a normal practice,” she said.

Brian Kolfage, the triple-amputee war veteran who founded We Build the Wall and started the GoFundMe campaign with an original goal of $1 billion, has faced criticism throughout the crowdfunding process — for initially lacking a plan to build the wall, and later for prompting concern from donors about how their money would be spent. He has touted the construction in Sunland Park as evidence that the fundraiser has worked.

The initial decision by the agency had prompted a series of angry tweets from Kolfage, who claimed that “Mexico just opened all gates” through IBWC for a “mass invasion.”

He told Business Insider that his group has been working with them since the beginning and said he had been told that they could build without the permit as they worked through that process to submit their application.

“They allowed us to build a wall on their property and we were thankful for that. There were no issues at all until the ACLU got involved and then the day later they backtracked on everything and said that the wall was going to be open indefinitely,” Kolfage said. “We’ve been submitting drawings, plans, and they were okay with us building before we had their permit.”

Kolfage added that the gate was never locked and all the IBWC had to do was “push it open and, boom, they’re in.”

He told Business Insider that he eventually wants the Department of Homeland Security to act as gatekeepers for the barrier. “They support what we’re doing behind closed doors,” Kolfage said. “All the agents love it, all the agents were actually really pissed off when they came to work the next morning and saw the gate open.”

A US Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told Business Insider in May that “this project is not connected to our efforts,” and that Border Patrol “has identified requirements to construct more than 700 miles of border barriers along the Southwest border. These requirements have been prioritized against currently identified funding sources to enable construction in locations where border barriers will most impact border security operations.”

“It is not uncommon for vendors to undertake demonstrations of their capabilities utilizing their own resources,” the spokesperson added. “We encourage all interested vendors to compete for border barrier contracts through established mechanisms to ensure any construction is carried out under relevant federal authorities and meets UBSP operational requirements for border barrier.”

Kuczmanski told Business Insider that IBWC commissioner Harkins decided on Tuesday that while the gate will remain open during the day, IBWC will close it at night -which, according to Kolfage, is fine because “all the traffic comes through that area at night.” Kuczmanski added that the gate will remain open until everything is resolved, describing the process as ongoing.

Kolfage said that the gate staying open is a temporary decision and he is optimistic the issue will be resolved soon. We Build the Wall plans to begin construction on the remainder of its barrier over the next couple of months.

“I’m not sure when everything was finally submitted, but [IBWC] has everything as of today, and we are pretty sure tomorrow they are going to say We Build the Wall has given everything and we now have the permit,” he said. “I am very confident this will all be resolved hopefully tomorrow.”

Water agency officials, however, said We Build the Wall organizers went forward with construction of the fence without turning in the proper paperwork for the barrier.

“Their permit is still in the works,” Kuczmanski said. “We’re asking for documentation.”

Kuczmanski says USIBWC is still waiting for We Build the Wall to fully file a permit request related to its use of federal land — a different permit than those required by the city.

We Build the Wall has estimated that the Sunland Park portion of the wall — which, at about a half-mile long, is a small fraction of the roughly 1,950-mile-long southern border — will cost $6 to $8 million. The organization said it is planning to continue building walls in other locations on the border, but has yet to announce where those walls are located.

The decision marked the second time We Build the Wall organizers have been accused of moving hastily on construction of the border wall without first obtaining authorization from public officials.