Tipsheet

These Border Wall Bidders are Now Receiving Death Threats

We've already heard about the controversy involving cities introducing legislation to ban any future contracts with border wall bidders, but now some bidders have found themselves on an entirely new level-- and because of their ethnicity, at that. 

Hispanic contractors who have expressed interest in the border wall business are finding themselves at the other end of death threats. 

“A lot of people are saying, ‘You’re Latino. How can you build a wall to keep other Latinos out?’ We had to do a lot of soul-searching before we jumped into this because it’s obviously a very, very controversial topic,” Michael Evangelista-Ysasaga, owner of the Penna Group, told the Washington Post

In just one week, Evangelista-Ysasaga received five death threats. 

"Every sovereign nation has a duty to defend its borders," he has responded, noting it's unfortunate that some of these Latino Americans have cast those who support the building of the wall as racist. 

One company executive pointed out that if his company received a contract, he expects a couple of his employees to drop out for fear of their safety, the Post published. 

Out of the 200-some companies bidding for contracts, only 32 are owned by Latino Americans. 

However, as it turns out, some parts of the wall may not even be able to be a physical "wall," according to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke. 

Zinke cited the Rio Grande River, asking what side the wall would be put on. He explained that in some areas, a wall does not physically make sense. 

Some companies have even reportedly been designing lethal electrical "walls," the Post reported.