“Seem to me they should count refurbished to updated standards and new wall construction.”
They count whatever they build as new miles, whether something was there before or not.
221 out of the pre-existing 654 miles of barrier were assessed as operationally effective (mainly the 18 foot bollards that have been built over the last 20 years).
That means that the other 433 miles of pre-existing barrier were NOT effective. All of that needs to be replaced, and it was all put in the hottest spots, where traffic was highest (urban areas along the border, and where highways on both sides run close to the border). Until those 433 high priority miles are fixed, most new construction will necessarily be in those areas (derided as replacement, or repair, rather than new).
There is no sense in building miles of new barrier out in the rural desert where few people go, when illegal entries are occurring by the thousands through a few miles of ineffective barrier in a border city.
So the Administration does not distinguish between miles where previous barrier existed, and those where there was none before. They just prioritize by where it is most needed, and avoid being distracted by the Left’s rhetorical attacks on it not being new, as if that discounts its existence or effectiveness.
“refurbished to updated standards”
That is a key feature of what is going on. The Administration refers to it as “Wall System”, rather than just Border Wall. It is a whole suite of infrastructure and technology, engineered to achieve a specific outcome, which they call “Full Operational Control”.
The barrier itself measurably defeats, deters or delays attempts to go over, under or through. Lights, cameras, alarms and sensors provide reliable high detection rates (effectively 100%) and early warning, and high speed, all weather patrol road gives officers, rapid response times to intercept. The total System is in fact working in practice, once everything is installed and turned on (often many moths after the bollards themselves are completed).
These new standards are a revolution in border security, effectively closing the border where installed, rather than just making some marginal improvement.
A friend of mine said he drove across the border, at a deserted area off of a unpaved road, in a rental car back in the 80’s near Nogales. Was the border really that porous, and are there any sections like that today?