Steve Bannon's group built a mile-long wall along the US-Mexico border

Private group led by Steve Bannon has built its own mile-long wall along the US-Mexico border in just three days after fundraising $8MILLION – and now says it will sell it to the government for just $1

We Build the Wall Inc., the non-profit spurred by triple-amputee veteran Brian Kolfage’s GoFundMe campaign to pay for a border wall, has built part of its own
The wall starts at the Rio Grande River and goes up Mount Cristo Rey
It’s built on private property, constructed over Friday to Sunday in secret
Kolfage said the mile-long wall cost between $6 million and $8 million to build, and his organization will sell it to the federal government for just $1
Kolfage told DailyMail.com that this build has been approved by Trump and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
DHS to did not immediately reply to DailyMail.com’s request for comment

A non-profit organization, backed by Steve Bannon, to fund Donald Trump’s border wall between the United States and Mexico has built its first mile-long section of wall.

The wall, which spans just under one mile in length, went up over the weekend on private property running next to El Paso, Texas, through Sunland Park, New Mexico, triple-amputee veteran Brian Kolfage told DailyMail.com on Monday.

‘It’s just under one mile long,’ Kolfage said. ‘The wall starts at the Rio Grande River and goes up Mount Cristo Rey where the US Army Crops of engineers said it was impossible to build.

Kolfage said once everything is said and done, his organization will sell the wall, which cost between $6million and $8million to build, to the federal government for the bargain price of $1.

‘We’re going to sell this wall back to them for $1 and release the title to them,’ he said. ‘We cant give the government the money because that’s not the way it works. But we wanted to show the american people how to get this job done.’

Heavy machinery moves a bollard-type wall to be placed along the border of private property using funds raised from a GoFundMe account at Sunland Park, New Mexico on Monday

The image above shows the wall being built as seen from the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez on Monday

Kolfage is operating under an entity called We Build the Wall Inc., which is a Florida non-profit tax-exempt advocacy organization, with former White House Chief Strategist and former Breitbart News executive chairman Steve Bannon as director, and former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach on the team as well.

Dustin Stockton, co-founder of We Build the Wall 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.

The build was overseen by construction mogul Tommy Fisher of North Dakota-based Fisher Industries.

Kolfage told DailyMail.com his team chose the location at the intersection of the Texas, New Mexico and Mexico borders based on data obtained from a Freedom of Information Act request filed with US Customs and Border Protection.

‘It’s the worst smuggling route on the entire border,’ Kolfage said. ‘Border patrol said 1000 people cross a day, on average.’

Triple-amputee veteran Brian Kolfage’s non-profit We Build the Wall Inc. has built a portion of its promised border all over the weekend, spanning one mile and costing $6-$8 million

Kolfage told DailyMail.com his organization, under the direction of former White House Chief Strategist and former Breitbart News executive chairman Steve Bannon, will sell the wall to the federal government for the bargain price of $1. Former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach on the We Build the Wall Inc. team as well (Kobach is second from the left)

According to Kolfage, the government said in the past that the mountains were a natural barrier that would stop the flow of migrants.

‘But it hasn’t stopped anything,’ he said. ‘That’s why decided to build here first.’

Kolfage said his organization had to build in secrecy for fear of groups opposing the building of a border wall impeding the project’s process.

‘There are a lot of different groups opposed to what we’re doing that would have just had to file an injunction against the property owner and that would have delayed the build,’ he said.

‘We also didn’t want to risk international incident so we wanted to keep it tight-lipped until it was completed.’

Bannon said, ‘We had to catch them by surprise,’ while discussing the building in between his weekend in Kazakhstan for a geopolitical seminar, Yahoo! reported.

Kolfage said his organization had to build in secrecy for fear of groups opposing the building of a border wall impeding the project’s process. The non-profit’s director Steve Bannon (pictured) said, ‘We had to catch them by surprise,’ while discussing the building in between his weekend in Kazakhstan for a geopolitical seminar

The wall sits on a stretch of property about 10 feet wide, right on the edge of New Mexico, and a team of hundreds began constructing it on Friday night. Kobach is shown working on site

The build was overseen by construction mogul Tommy Fisher of North Dakota-based Fisher Industries. The build site is shown from over the weekend

The wall sits on a stretch of property about 10 feet wide, right on the edge of New Mexico, and a team of hundreds began constructing it on Friday night.

Bannon claims that the wall will connect two 21-mile sections of existing fence, but this has not bee independently confirmed, according to CNN.

‘Border Patrol told us it’s the No. 1 most important miles to close,’ Bannon said.

‘The tough terrain always left it off the government list.

‘And that’s what we focus on – private land that is not in the program and take the toughest first.’

Kobach made a similar claim on Fox&Friends, saying: ‘There’s been a half-mile gap between the existing wall and Mount Cristo Rey.

‘And it was a ridiculously large gap that the smuggling of both people and drugs would go through.’

Kobach said the project was ‘the first time any private organization has built border wall on private land.’

The property owner was an entity called American Eagle Brick Company, a Texas business with George F Cudahy listed as the registered agent.

Kolfage said the owner is an Air Force veteran fighter pilot, who has dealt with theft and was eager to get a border wall up after ‘the federal government said they wouldn’t and couldn’t do it.’

That owner finally got his wish, after turning over control of the stretch of land to We Build the Wall Inc. The agency’s wall is generally 25 feet tall, depending on the section, according to Kolfage.

The group bought the property the wall sits on from a private owner. It starts at the Rio Grande River and goes up Mount Cristo Rey, ending at a cliff (location shown on map)

The agency’s wall is generally 25 feet tall, depending on the section, according to Kolfage

‘The steel portions of the wall are 25 feet tall, but we built the base up with stone in some areas, so it can be roughly 30-40 feet tall, as it goes up the mountain,’ he said.

‘It’s made of all-weather steel which could last for centuries. It costs more up front but the overall cost of not having to be replaced in the near future is better in the long run.’

Kolfage said the wall being built by the US govt is being made with steel that is not all-weather and will rust.

‘Our wall is far superior to the government wall,’ Kolfage said.

The wall ends at cliff on the mountain where you would have to be an expert mountain climber get across from Mexico into the US, Kolfage said.

‘We also opted for a technology package that includes a fiber optic sensor in the ground that can detect digging and even people touching the wall. There will also be cameras mounted on the wall.

‘We’re paving a road for border control with outlook centers at the top of the mountain, as well.’

‘The steel portions of the wall are 25 feet tall, but we built the base up with stone in some areas, so it can be roughly 30-40 feet tall, as it goes up the mountain,’ Kolfage said

Kolfage estimated that the total cost of the wall built over the weekend to be between $6 million and $8 million

Kolfage estimated that the total cost of the wall built over the weekend to be between $6 million and $8 million.

‘The wall itself cost about $2 million,’ Kolfage said. ‘Construction was right around $2 million, and we had to clear a mountain. The biggest cost was earth moving on this project. If we were working on flat land it would have cost about $3 million to $4 million for the mile.’

By that estimation, the organization could afford to build about two more miles of border wall under similar circumstances, based on its total contributions received to date of $22,372,736.

If Kolfage is correct about lower costs for building on flat land, the group could build another three-and-a-half miles of wall with its current donations.

For context, the US Mexico border spans a total of 1,954 miles.

When asked about claims that Kolfage has diverted funds from the donations he received on GoFundMe to pay for a private jet, he said those claims were false and he travels as a beneficiary of an organization called Veterans Airlift Command.

‘It’s network of private jet owners who donated their time, their aircraft and fuel to fly wounded veterans who are disabled on private airplanes,’ he said.

‘We cant spend a dollar without getting approval from internal and external audit committees. There’s no way we could be buying private jets or a yacht with donor money.’

Kolfage told DailyMail.com that this build has been approved by Trump and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

‘We’re talking with DHS and trying to get permission to build inside the Roosevelt Easement, and if that works out, we could build the entire wall from New Mexico to California with private donations,’ he said.

Kolfage said Kobach is handling all discussions with DHS.

DailyMail.com reached out to DHS to confirm and did not immediately receive a reply.

When asked if his organization would put in a bid to build the government funded portions of the wall, Kolfage said it had no plans to do that.

‘That seems like a mess and it’s not really what it’s about for our group,’ he said.

‘We have letters of intent to build more border wall, but we’re not releasing locations in advance. We’re going to keep chugging along and raising money and supplementing the president’s plan.’

When asked if his organization would put in a bid to build the government funded portions of the wall, Kolfage said it had no plans to do that. Kolfagetold DailyMail.com that this build has been approved by President Donald Trump (pictured) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

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