SUNLAND PARK, N.M. (AP) — A border suburb of El Paso, Texas, has issued a cease-and-desist order against construction of a privately funded border barrier.
A spokesman for Sunland Park, New Mexico, said Tuesday that the barrier being erected by We Build The Wall Inc. on private property doesn’t comply with city ordinances. City spokesman Peter Ibarbo says the company had applied for a construction permit but the application was incomplete.
The company didn’t immediately respond to a message from The Associated Press.
In a statement to KVIA-TV in El Paso , the company says it had “done everything they need to do to be in compliance with all regulations.” The company calls the stop order “a last ditch effort to intimidate us from completing this project.”
A leader with the group that’s been raising funds to build a southern border wall on its own says they erected less than a mile of wall on private land in New Mexico over Memorial Day weekend.
Dustin Stockton, co-founder of the nonprofit WeBuildtheWall Inc., told The Associated Press Monday that they spent about 10 days moving dirt before starting construction Friday. He says the wall segment in Sunland Park is “mostly up” and should be completed by the end of the week.
Stockton, whose group has raised about $22 million , says they don’t have a final tally yet on the cost, but he expects it’ll be somewhere between $6 million and $10 million. He says the site’s steep incline added to the cost.
The government’s cost for the new walls its building is about $22 million a mile.