A new engineering report set to be filed in court this week is expected to say that parts of President Trump’s border wall are already in danger in collapsing.
The report, which is one of two set to be filed later this week in federal court, found that a 3-mile stretch of border fencing along the Rio Grande — and built earlier this year by North Dakota-based Fisher Sand and Gravel – is endanger of collapsing due to extensive erosion, according to a Texas news outlet.
Tommy Fisher, the company’s owner, has previously called this section of the barrier the “Lamborghini” of border walls, but engineers who have examined the new reports have called into question those claims.
STEVE BANNON, ‘WE BUILD THE WALL’ ORGANIZERS ARRESTED, CHARGED WITH DEFRAUDING DONORS
“It seems like they are cutting corners everywhere,” Alex Mayer, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso, told the Texas Tribune, which first reported on the issues. “It’s not a Lamborghini, it’s a $500 used car.”
Neither Fisher Sand & Gravel Company nor U.S. Customs Border and Protection, which has spearheaded the construction of the wall, returned Fox News’ request for comment.
Fisher agreed to have the reports conducted as part of lawsuits filed last year by the National Butterfly Center and the International Boundary and Water Commission. The organizations have been unsuccessful at stopping the construction the borer wall along the Rio Grande, but want to know what the potential impacts the barrier will have on the river.
Mark Tompkins, an environmental engineer hired by the wildlife refuge, said that he has witnessed scouring and erosion following heavy rains, and added that severe flooding could cause the fencing to fail.
Donations to build part of the barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border are a key point in an indictment against members of the We Build the Wall nonprofit, including former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. The nonprofit has collected more than $25 million to aid in the construction of the wall.
But Bannon – along with We Build The Wall organizers Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea – are accused of defrauding donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars and using the money to fund lavish lifestyles.
According to the indictment, Bannon and co-defendant Kolfage raised money for a “volunteer organization” and told the public that 100% of donations would go toward the federal government’s building of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
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The campaign’s website said all of the money raised would go to the government for building the wall and that if they did not meet their fundraising target they would “refund every single penny,” according to the indictment.
“These representations were false,” the indictment read.
Prosecutors claim that Kolfage, Bannon, Badolato and Shea took money for themselves, with Bannon alone receiving more than $1 million through a nonprofit that he then used for personal expenses and to pay Kolfage.
The defendants have pleaded not guilty.
Fox News’ Evie Fordham contributed to this report.
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