A private company building a wall along the southern US border halted construction after the mayor of a New Mexico town claimed they were in violation of a city ordinance regulating wall height.
Javier Perea, the Democrat mayor of Sunland Park, ordered a cease-and-desist order against the We Build the Wall project claiming they failed to comply with an ordinance regulating the height of fences and had neglected to obtain the proper permits.
The project, which is about 80 percent complete, "closes a gap in fencing between the Rio Grande on the east and Mount Cristo Rey to the west," according to the Washington Times, and was privately funded with donations received through a GoFundMe crowdfund last year.
In a statement to KVIA Perea claimed the city only learned about the project last week and that officials had been turned away when they tried to visit the construction site.
"There was no survey submitted, no site plan and some contradictory information submitted to the City of Sunland Park," Perea said, adding that "My understanding is City ordinance only allows a wall up to six feet tall so, at this point, it is not within City ordinance."
"At this point, it will be turned over to the courts," Mayor Perea said.
In a statement to the Washington Times, general counsel for the wall project Kris Kobach said they were told the person in charge of receiving city fees was out on vacation but that work could begin on the project so long as they later paid the fee.
"We were told go ahead and we could pay for the permit when he gets back from vacation," Kobach said.
Meanwhile, We Build the Wall President, Air Force Veteran, triple amputee and Purple Heart recipient Brian Kolfage, called out Sunland Park City officials as liars and accused them of working for Mexican cartels.
"What cartel paid off the Sunland Park City officials to lie and shut down our wall project?" Kolfage blasted out on Twitter, while saying city officials had indeed given the green light.
Sunland Park’s mayor was forced to respond to the corruption charges saying those days are long behind the city.
"Yes, there was corruption in the past in the city of Sunland Park, but we maintain clean audits with the city of Sunland Park," Perea said. "That image is a whole lot different than it was, six or seven years ago."
Kolfage also promised to school the city’s mayor on its own laws and on Wednesday announced a rally to take place at the wall in Sunland Park.
He says the company had anticipated this and they were ready to expose the well-documented ties between the city and Mexican drug cartels.
Construction was halted, Kolfage says, before they were able to pave a road alongside the wall intended for Border Patrol agents.
In a related post, Kolfage noted the wall was already working after "A group came down to cross and saw the wall, immediately turned around and went back up mountain!"
SOURCE
https://www.intellihub.com/private-wall-construction-halted-because-nm-mayor-says-18-foot-wall-must-be-6-feet/
No comments:
Post a Comment