Fisher Industries

Fisher Industries is a privately held construction company based in Dickinson, North Dakota, led by Tommy Fisher. It is a child company of Fisher Sand and Gravel.[1]

President Donald Trump has lobbied for the company to receive contracts on the US-Mexico Trump wall, to the Department of Homeland Security, to Todd T. Semonite of the Army Corps of Engineers, and promoted the company in an interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity.[2] Jared Kushner has also endorsed the company, as well as freshman North Dakota senator Kevin Cramer, to whose campaign the Fisher family contributed $10,000.[3]

Tommy Fisher has appeared on local and conservative TV and radio and is a donor to several charities and the Republican Party.[3][4] Senator Cramer suggested Fisher's Fox News appearances are what attracted Trump to the company.

The High Plains Reader has documented environmental violations and tax evasion by the company, including 169 citations and paying $1 million in air quality violation fines in Maricopa County, Arizona over the past 10 years. In 2009 Michael Fisher, then-owner of Fisher, pled guilty to nine counts of felony tax fraud, [5] being sentenced to 37 months in prison and over $300,000 in restitution. The comptroller also pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States in 2009. Another former head of the company, David William Fisher, pled guilty in 2005 to child pornography and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.[1] He was released on April 30, 2010.[6]

Projects

San Diego wall prototype and government contracts

In April 2019 Fisher Industries sued the Army Corps for using an inconsistent contract acceptance policy in two wall contracts.[4][2] The Corps agreed and sided with Fisher. They had previously built a concrete-based prototype of the border wall in 2017. The concrete wall was late, over budget, and more expensive than a steel wall, and Fisher's later steel design did not meet the Army Corps requirements.[2]

New Mexico private wall construction

The company is building sections of a border wall on private property in Sunland Park, New Mexico owned by the American Eagle Brick Company. Sunland Park is adjacent to El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Construction money was raised by We Build The Wall, which began as a GoFundMe campaign by Internet fundraiser Brian Kolfage.[3] Despite construction having been started, building permits for the wall have not been approved by Sunland Park whose mayor issued a cease and desist letter to Fisher.[7][8]

Arizona border wall photo op

Trump advisor and former Kansas Secretary of State and losing gubernatorial candidate, Kris Kobach, visited Coolidge, Arizona with other border wall proponents to observe Fisher's demonstration of how it would build a border fence. Fisher maintained it could erect 218 miles of the barrier for $3.3 billion and be able to complete it in 13 months. Spin cameras positioned atop the fence would use facial recognition technology. Fiber optic cables buried in the ground could detect and differentiate between human activity, vehicles, tunneling, and animals as distant as 40 feet away. The Arizona barrier would be constructed with 42 miles near Yuma and 91 miles near Tucson, Arizona, plus 69 miles near El Paso, Texas, and 15 more miles near El Centro, California. It would reportedly cost $12.5 million per mile. Louisiana Republican U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy said he traveled with the group of politicians over the Easter recess to Coolidge, which is 120 miles north of the Mexico border, because he felt that not enough barrier and border enhancements had been erected since Donald Trump became president 27 months previously.[9] Cramer was there to promote Fisher, which demonstrated its ability by constructing a 56-foot fence in Coolidge, located 120 miles north of the Mexican border.[10] However, Arizona's freshman U.S. Senator, Republican Martha McSally said that a barrier will not resolve the border crisis.[11] In late 2018, Kobach had joined with other right-wing political operatives, including billionaire Erik Prince, Trump adviser and former Breitbart editor Steve Bannon, Breitbart manager Brandon Darby, former Milwaukee County, Wisconsin black Sheriff David Clarke, former Congressman Tom Tancredo and Kolfage to form an organization to raise funds facilitating construction of a barrier.[12][13] Kolfage had raised tens of millions of donated dollars and asserted the organization would raise such private funds to construct hundreds of miles of their proposed border wall on private lands in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. As its prime organizer, in December 2018, Kolfage launched what he represented as an attempt to raise $1 billion via GoFundMe for the wall's construction, but changed the structure of the organization to become a 501(c)4, that allows it to make unlimited political contributions.[14][15][16] Kolfage stated that the target figure was achievable, adding "This won't be easy, but it's our duty as citizens".[17][12][16]

See also

References
  1. C.S. Hagen (January 31, 2018). "The dark side of Trump's wall". High Plains Reader. Retrieved 29 May 2019. And the Dickinson-based company has a long history of criminal tax evasion, pollution citations, environmental fines, litigiousness, heavy campaign contributions, and one previous CEO, David Fischer, with a conviction for child pornography.
  2. Anna Giaritelli (7 May 2019). "Construction company sues Army Corps, calls border fence bid process 'highly flawed'". Washington Examiner. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  3. Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey (May 23, 2019). "He always brings them up: Trump tries to steer border wall deal to North Dakota firm". Washington Post. Retrieved May 30, 2019.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  4. Anna Giaritelli (9 May 2019). "Army Corps rescinds border wall contract, admits it 'improperly excluded' companies from bidding". Washington Examiner. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  5. "Former Dickinson businessman sentenced for tax fraud". Grand Forks Herald. December 16, 2009. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
  6. David William Fischer 08880-059, Bureau of Prisons. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  7. Aguilar, Julián (May 28, 2019). "Border wall on private land near El Paso lacks necessary permits, local officials say". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved 29 May 2019. “The city has not provided any permits, it has not approved of the construction that has gone up already,” city spokesperson Peter Ibardo told The Texas Tribune on Tuesday. “They built the structure without authority or any building permits from the city.”
  8. Donica Phifer (28 May 2019). "New Mexico Mayor orders group building border wall on private land to stop construction". newsweek.com. Retrieved 30 May 2019. The mayor of Sunland Park, New Mexico, has issued a cease-and-desist order to a private group that raised millions to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
  9. Anna Giaritelli (April 16, 2019). "Kris Kobach and fellow border hawks join Army Corps in Arizona to see company's border fence proposal". Washington Examiner. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
  10. Eloise Ogden (April 19, 2019). "ND company demonstrates building border wall". Minot Daily News. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
  11. Anna Giaritelli (April 17, 2019). "Wall supporter Martha McSally says more barrier won't end border crisis". Washington Examiner. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
  12. Beau Hodai (March 30, 2019). "What Are Steve Bannon, Kris Kobach and Co. up to at the Arizona-Mexico Border?". Phoenix New Times. Retrieved May 30, 2019.
  13. Sacks, Brianna (January 10, 2019). ""I Felt Dirty": Former Employees Of The Veteran Crowdfunding Trump's Wall Say He Pushed Fake News To Get Rich". Buzzfeed. Retrieved 2019-05-30.
  14. Zadrozny, Brandy; Collins, Ben (January 11, 2019). "Behind the viral #GoFundTheWall fundraiser, a rising conservative star and a shadowy email harvesting operation". NBC News. Retrieved 2019-05-30.
  15. Alfaro, Mariana (January 12, 2019). "Man behind 'Build the Wall' GoFundMe has reportedly made a potentially lucrative contact list thanks to a shadowy email-harvesting operation". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-05-30.
  16. Collins, Ben (December 20, 2018). "Founder of viral fundraiser for Trump's border wall has questionable news past". NBC News. Retrieved 2019-05-30.
  17. "Trump supporters angry at his 'retreat' on border wall". BBC. 20 December 2018. Retrieved 2019-05-30.
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