Sullivan Land Services and its subcontractor Ultimate Concrete smuggled armed Mexican “security teams” over the border to guard construction sites and equipment as part of its operation to build lame duck president Donald Trump’s self-acclaimed border wall, the New York Times reports.
Two whistleblowers filed accounts with the Justice Department in February detailing the lengths the two companies took to bring Mexican workers over the border, including building an illegal road and using trucks and other construction vehicles to block views of security cameras.
The whistleblowers, contract employees for the companies, also report the barrier was breached many times and the contractors used unapproved third-party companies to undertake the repairs.
In one report from one of the whistleblowers, the Mexican security guards got involved in a gunfight on the American side of the wall, near San Diego, with people alleged trying to steal construction equipment. Two of the Mexicans were injured. When the incident was reported to the Army Corps of Engineers overseeing the project, the Corps said it would investigate but it did not match other accounts of the incident.
The complaint notes that the Army Corps and the Border Patrol were both aware that undocumented armed Mexican workers were being brought across the border to provide security, but neither raised significant objections.