President Donald Trump signed the so-called "Big, Beautiful Bill" into law on the Fourth of July, bringing to a close a weekslong back and forth in Washington about the fate of the massive spending package.
The bill includes a historic sum of some $170 billion for immigration enforcement and border security.
That means additional money for construction along the border in Arizona and other states — the package puts more than $46 billion toward more wall projects. Another $15 billion will go toward Customs and Border Protection facilities and other initiatives.
The new money will add to existing funding already being used for border construction. Several weeks ago, the Trump administration announced plans to build a more than 20 mile stretch of wall across a biodiversity hot spot in the Arizona-Sonora borderlands called the San Rafael Valley.
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An inspection at a Mexican military checkpoint in San Luis Río Colorado resulted in the arrest of two people and the seizure of more than a ton of white powder. -
The Arizona Sheriff’s Association issued an open letter calling out the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office over its response to the public safety concerns surrounding the border wall construction in that area. -
Several window panels were broken at the Fisher Industries facility. The parent company, North Dakota-based Fisher Sand & Gravel, is contracted by the federal government for border wall construction. Tempe Police say investigators believe multiple people arrived around 4 in the morning to damage the building. -
The Forest Service is closing off a long stretch of the border to protesters and the public alike, raising issues of transparency as they claim its unrelated to confrontations. -
On Monday, dozens of agents swarmed a stretch of private land where the activists had been camped in and around a centuries-old cottonwood tree. Contractors tore down the tree and agents made multiple arrests.
