Well, apparently there is a silver lining waiting for the Hispanic population when it comes to Donald Trump’s border wall. One of the companies tapped by the Department of Homeland Security to build a prototype wall has reached out to the public to let them know that since they are a “minority-owned company” that their wall will be “environmentally sensitive”. The company that we’re talking about is Arizona-based KWR Construction and in a press release tweeted by Kayla Tausche of CNBC, the company claims that given the wall’s inevitability, “all of us can make lemonade out of what some call a lemon.”
One biz building border wall prototype, @KWRConstruction, put out this release: "All of us can make lemonade out of what some call a lemon" pic.twitter.com/OHRF8aQHUa
— Kayla Tausche (@kaylatausche) October 23, 2017
KWR Construction claims that many of their workers have roots in Mexico and that because of that they are committed to working with integrity so as to demonstrate respect for the people south of the border that they are getting paid enormous sums of money to wall off.
$20 million for 8 prototypes by 6 companies. I suppose that is lemonade out of lemons since the useless wall may not be funded by Congress.
— Fly Sistah (@Fly_Sistah) October 23, 2017
The Washington Post published that KWR’s prototype contract is worth anywhere from $300,000-$500,000, and is specifically for the construction of a non-concrete barrier just like the three other companies that were commended with the same task of building an “other material prototype”. The other companies competing in the same category as KWR are Caddell Construction Co.,(DE), LLC from Montgomery Alabama, ELTA North America Inc. from the Annapolis Junction in Maryland with its base in Israel and W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Company from Philadelphia and Mississippi.
Hispanic-owned KWR Construction may face criticism after bidding to work on the #Trump wall. https://t.co/uOCzAXujQB
— Cronkite News (@cronkitenews) April 22, 2017
The company insists that there is nothing racist about bidding for the construction of the wall, their main reason being that they are in fact a Latino-owned company whose project will benefit their workers, “We want whatever jobs here along the border that we can get, and set aside our personal beliefs to support our employee.”
https://twitter.com/panininef/status/905889544137998337
Al Anderson, the general manager of KWR Construction Inc.has said to Cronkite News that he has seen it before. “The company has worked on multiple border projects for the federal government,” said Anderson to the Arizona PBS News Division, “sometimes facing people on the Mexican side of the border who threw rocks at the wall while KWR crews were working there.”
Back then, those inconveniences didn’t stop the company’s work and the current criticism they face did not deter them from vying for the project now.
“Building barriers on the border is nothing new,” said Anderson. “If the government’s going to build a wall, we want to do it.”
Article inspired by Splinter News // Latinx-Owned Company Promises It Can Totally Make a Woke and Inclusive Version of Trump’s Wall