Privately funded portion of border wall appears in New Mexico town

SUNLAND PARK, N.M. (FOX 10) - A privately funded portion of a border wall popped up late last week in a town in New Mexico. The town's mayor says the wall is in violation of city ordinance - but builders disagree.

Near the border of Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico, a border wall has sprung up practically overnight.

"In less than 60 days, we've conceptualized and implemented a project of this scale," said Dustin Stockton, vice president of We Buil the Wall. "And I think people are taking a lot of pride in that."

The privately funded wall in Sunland Park is the work of We Build the Wall, a GoFundMe-backed nonprofit trying to beef up border security. But the mayor of Sunland Park says the project came as a surprise last week.

"On Thursday, we were denied entry to the location," said Sunland Park Mayor Javier Perea. "And then on Friday, the owner of the property did come to the City of Sunland Park and submitted an application for a wall in that area."

The city has issued a cease-and-desist, saying the group started building the wall with a permit. But We Build the Wall says the city did give them permission to build.

"One official said so Thursday, another official said so on Friday," said Kris Kobach, legal adviser for We Build the Wall. "And they came down and inspected the site Friday, too, when they told us to proceed."

The mayor responded to those claims, saying they aren't true and that he wasn't aware of any city official giving the company permission to build. The site of the wall is currently in a work stoppage but both sides say they're prepared to take this dispute to court unless things come to a resolution.

FOX 10 reported on this story from Phoenix.