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CBP will begin filling border wall gaps in Yuma this week

Customs and Border Protection is set to begin construction this week on a project to close gaps in the U.S.-Mexico border wall built under former President Donald Trump in Yuma.

The gaps are along a section of border near the Morelos Dam, the last dam water from the Colorado River passes through before entering Mexico. 

CBP announced plans to fill gaps there last July and now says it expects to complete the work by this coming summer. 

At times, several hundred migrants seeking asylum have lined up at the area to present themselves to Border Patrol agents. Arizona responded by erecting a temporary, makeshift wall of shipping containers there. That structure cost several million dollars to install and was taken down this month, after the Department of Justice sued the state over the project.

Experts say the container wall made no measurable impact on the number of people waiting to present. 

 

Alisa Reznick is a senior field correspondent covering stories across southern Arizona and the borderlands for the Tucson bureau of KJZZ's Fronteras Desk.