A billion-dollar border wall could cut through a popular Southern California hiking area

The Jacumba Wilderness federal nature preserve lies in the southeast corner of Imperial County, where wild horses sometimes gallop and rocky hills dotted with shrub and cacti roll seamlessly into Mexico.

“It just takes your breath away,” said Laura Kilcoyne, an avid hiker born and raised in San Diego. 

This remote area is also now the site of a federal construction project with a billion-dollar price tag and a contractor with a history of fines and regulatory violations. 

President Donald Trump is building his signature steel bollard border fence through the remote, rocky region where one of many mileslong gaps in the southern border wall is located. 

The firm doing the work in this area — Fisher Sand & Gravel Co. — was sued by the Department of Justice in 2019. The DOJ claimed that a section of privately funded border wall the firm built in Texas was unstable and eroding and violated an international treaty with Mexico due to flood risks. 

The firm has also racked up more than two dozen environmental and workplace safety violations and been fined more than $2 million by governmental regulators, according to a database from the corporate transparency nonprofit Good Jobs First.

Its president, Tommy Fisher, is a Republican donor who under the first Trump administration repeatedly went on Fox News to pitch his border wall prototype and then secured a lucrative contract at the president’s insistence, according to The Washington Post. 

Fisher Sand & Gravel Co. did not respond to specific questions and multiple requests for comment by email and phone.

The Trump administration initially awarded Fisher’s firm $574 million for the project in the Jacumba Wilderness in September, but the total more than doubled to $1.2 billion six months later. 

It’s part of a broader trend of ballooning contract awards for border construction at a time when migrant encounters are at historic lows and U.S. citizens are increasingly concerned about the economy as well as the administration’s approach to immigration enforcement. 

Then there are those like Kilcoyne who worry that the border construction will disrupt the serene views and quiet solitude the region offers. 

Customs and Border Protection, the federal agency managing the construction along the nearly 2,000 mile-long border, has encountered opposition from dozens of groups and individuals worried about the impact on the landscape and wildlife in California. 

The second Trump administration has fast-tracked border construction by waiving environmental and contracting regulations in San Diego and other areas and committed $47 billion to finish the job — more than double the total allotted during his first term.

Asked about the border contracts, a White House spokesperson told inewsource that the president “has kept his promise to the American people” to secure the border.

“We are committed to finishing building the wall so our border stays secure for years to come,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said in an emailed statement. 

While the Jacumba Wilderness is popular with hikers, climbers and off-roaders, it has also been a significant crossing corridor for migrants in recent years.

In 2023, during a period of record encounters along the southern border, migrants who had turned themselves into Border Patrol and were waiting to be processed spent days in makeshift encampments in the open desert of Jacumba. 

Families, including mothers and young children, made shelters from the shrub and built fires at night to stay warm as Border Patrol agents shuttled small groups in buses to their processing centers. 

The region, despite its natural beauty, can be hostile. In a six-year span ending in 2021, a dozen bodies believed to be migrants who died from environmental exposure were found in or near the Jacumba Wilderness.

For now, razor wire strung along the gap in the wall acts as a placeholder for the planned barrier. 

Border barrier construction resumes 

Under the initial $574 million contract awarded in September, Fisher Sand & Gravel Co. was expected to build nine miles of new barrier to fill a gap in the wall extending from the southeastern edge of San Diego County to Imperial County and add cameras, detection technology and lighting along another 63 miles as part of the administration’s so-called “smart border,” according to Customs and Border Protection. 

Online federal contracting data shows that three bids were made for that contract. 

In March, Fisher’s award for the contract climbed to $1.2 billion. Federal contracting data shows that the government added nearly $22 million to the award early that month for “tiered funding.”

The next day, almost $630 million was added to build more than 30 miles of a secondary barrier, an additional layer of fencing which would run parallel to the southernmost one, as well as access roads, “new alignment” and other “requirements,” according to the contracting data.

Scott Amey, who investigates federal spending and serves as the general counsel for the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight, said the contract is extensive and costly. 

“I’m worried about the amount that’s being spent on all this, and I’m very worried about the contracting process and whether this is a best practice when spending billions with little competition and a lot of changes,” Amey said.

The project falls under a larger contract given to Fisher that includes numerous projects for border construction with a potential spending cap of $4.1 billion. It’s unclear whether that cap has increased as a result of the Fisher contracts in Jacumba going up. 

Customs and Border Protection did not respond to questions from inewsource about the Fisher contracts and border project in Jacumba. 

The Trump administration has been criticized in recent months for how it has doled out border contracts, including those contracts awarded to Fisher. 

In May, a contractor sued the U.S. government, alleging that it had awarded the bulk of border construction projects — worth billions of dollars — to just two contractors, including Fisher Sand & Gravel Co.. 

Posillico, Inc., one of the 11 prequalified contractors eligible to receive contracts, alleged that the administration had doled out more than 70% of the awards to Fisher and Barnard Construction Co., Inc. and that Posillico and several other contractors had received none. 

Fisher was not directly sued in that case, but the firm intervened in the lawsuit to protect its contracts with the government. The case was dismissed in late July at Posillico’s request. 

Posillico did not respond to a request for comment from inewsource.  

Environmental concerns remain 

Kilcoyne said she frequently sees Border Patrol agents around the Valley of the Moon trail, one of the main hiking areas in the Jacumba Wilderness, and she wonders how much the new barriers can do to prevent people from crossing into the U.S. there. 

“If there’s a will, there’s a way,” she said. “They’ll get around it.” 

Along the southern border, new barrier construction has ignited concerns over its impact on the natural land and the people and communities living there.  

Bulldozing for the new border barrier was halted last week at Big Bend National Park, a popular and picturesque landscape in southwest Texas, after weeks of bipartisan pushback and protests. 

In Arizona, a group of protestors spent weeks sitting in a tree to prevent barrier construction from tearing down an ancient cottonwood. 

In San Diego, boulder demolition at Tecate Peak, considered sacred land to the Kumeyaay people on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, has threatened the community’s heritage. 

And in the Jacumba Wilderness where the Fisher firm is set to build the new barriers, wildlife advocates are pushing the government to consider including crossing corridors to help endangered species such as bighorn sheep survive in the area. 

As of August, the Valley of the Moon trail showed few signs of the impending changes. 

A concrete-paved road ascends into the rocky hills before the trail transitions into a dirt path bending south toward Mexico. Wind roars through the peaks, shaking the low-lying shrub before suddenly disappearing again, making everything quieter than before. 

Josh Menvielle first discovered the area during the pandemic in 2020. 

Looking for a respite from life in lockdown, he and a friend visited the area and became enamored with its towering rock formations and desert life. 

The Jacumba Wilderness and nearby area contains abandoned mines; Blue Angels Peak, the highest point in Imperial County, and Smuggler’s Den, a cave-shaped rock formation along one trail.  

A map of the border construction updated in late August shows a barrier that would jut north into the U.S., cutting off access to parts of Jacumba Wilderness altogether. 

Menvielle is less concerned with the “political aspect” of the new barrier than whether it will prevent him from reaching some of his favorite sights and places. 

“If the border wall was built there, it would take away the feeling of being in an undeveloped, unique desert landscape,” he said. “It’s really disappointing to think about.”