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Did Trump Build A Wall

Suits By Sierra Club And 16 States

VERIFY: Did Trump build 400 miles of border wall?

Two separate lawsuits were filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California shortly after the order was signed. The first, filed on February 18, 2019, was from sixteen U.S. states led by California challenging the declaration. The lawsuit asserted that Trump’s executive order diverting funds appropriated by Congress from the Department of Defense to the other agencies responsible for the wall’s construction violated the Appropriations Clause of Article One of the United States Constitution, limiting this as a Congressional power. On December 11, 2019, Judge Haywood Gilliam Jr. ruled that the executive order allocating the US$6.7 billion in funds violated the Appropriations Clause, stating that the executive order attempted to obtain the funds for the same project but labeled under a Defense project that Trump had been unable to obtain from Congress when it was a civilian project under the Department of Homeland Security.

In June 2020, the Ninth Circuit affirmed Gilliam’s ruling in both the states’ and the Sierra Club’s cases, ruling that the reappropriation of funds was unlawful. Trump petitioned the ruling to the Supreme Court, which had certified the case to hear during the 202021 term, though separately refused to lift the stay on the permanent injunction towards ongoing construction despite the Ninth’s ruling.

Opiniontrump’s Desire To Build The Wall Is The Dumbest Part Of His Immigration Policy

I prefer love and peace, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said in 2019, in response to Trump’s then-threats to close the U.S.-Mexico border unless Mexico acted aggressively on immigration enforcement. That peace and love turns out to look a lot like appeasing Trump, rather than providing assistance to people fleeing systemic poverty and violence from the neighbors to the south.

Mexico, of course, already has a history of cooperating with the United States on immigration enforcement, but it appears they have doubled down on it with Trump. It cannot be a coincidence that we are seeing images of Mexicans confronting migrants on its southern border only a week after the Congress passed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement to replace NAFTA. It seems that, when trade is involved, López Obrabor will choose the economy first even though he won the presidency two years ago on a leftist, populist and essentially anti-Trump platform.

Trump Spent $15 Billion On Border Wall But Skimped On Vaccines

Donald Trump participates in a ceremony commemorating the 200th mile of border wall at the border … with Mexico in San Luis, Arizona on June 23, 2020.

AFP via Getty Images

The Trump administration spent $15 billion on a border wall but decided against spending money to ensure a larger supply of vaccines would be available to protect millions of Americans from Covid-19, the respiratory illness that has killed nearly 300,000 people in the United States. The New York Times reported the Trump administration declined repeated offers from Pfizer to lock in hundreds of millions of additional vaccines for Americans. Pfizer board member and former Food and Drug Administration chief Scott Gottlieb confirmed the story. At the same time, the Trump administration moved forward at breakneck speed to buy land and pay contractors to build a southern border wall that analysts view as unlikely to reduce illegal immigration or save any American lives.

Before Pfizers coronavirus vaccine was proved highly successful in clinical trials last month, the company offered the Trump administration the chance to lock in supplies beyond the 100 million doses the pharmaceutical maker agreed to sell the government as part of a $1.95 billion deal months ago, reported the New York Times. But the administration, according to people familiar with the talks, never made the deal, a choice that now raises questions about whether the United States allowed other countries to take its place in line.

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Fact Check: Did President Trump Build The ‘big Beautiful’ Border Wall He Promised

During President Donald Trump‘s first campaign for president, one of his biggest, most quoted promises was to build a “big, beautiful wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border.

As far back as June 16, 2015, when he launched his campaign, Trump promised to “build a great wall” on the U.S.-Mexico border “very inexpensively.”

“I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively,” Trump said. “I will build a great great wall on our southern border and I’ll have Mexico pay for that wall.”

“Build the wall” chants were still heard at Trump’s 2020 campaign rallies.

As President-elect Joe Biden is set to take office January 20, the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection aim to complete 450 miles of border wall before the inauguration.

Trump’s Wall: How Much Has Been Built During His Term

What Trump got right and wrong about his new border barrier

President Donald Trump is visiting the southern border in Texas to claim success in the construction of a border fence with Mexico.

The White House said his visit would “mark the completion of more than 400 miles of border wall – a promise made, promise kept”.

So how much of the border wall has Mr Trump managed to build during his term in office?

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Bidens Plan For The Future Of The Wall

Biden has promised to undo most, if not all, of Trumps immigration policies, many in the first 100 days of office, including a complete halt on border wall construction. Bidens plan for his first 100 days in office include putting an end to Trumps February 2019 National Emergency declaration that diverted billions of dollars from other federal programs to build the wall. For example, in FY2019, the U.S. Department of Defense identified $2.5 billion from a counter narcotics program to fund wall construction, according to CBP. The following fiscal year, it identified an additional $3.8 billion from the same counter narcotics program. In FY2019, the Department of Defense also identified $3.6 billion from military construction to go towards the wall.

Building a wall from sea-to-shining-sea is not a serious policy solutionits a waste of money, and it diverts critical resources away from the real threats, the Biden Campaign website reads. A spokesperson for the Biden transition team did not immediately return TIMEs request for comment.

Most of the wall construction took place in 2019, according to Bolter. At this time a year ago in January of 2020, 100 miles of border wall had been completed in three years of the Trump Administration, she says. So were looking at 350 miles completed since then.

Instead, Biden plans to focus on investing in border technology to increase the effectiveness of screening at ports of entry, and increase partnerships with Canada and Mexico.

Promise: The Wall Would Cost $8

Perhaps Trumps most consistent promise about the border wall was that Mexico would pay for it.

“I will have Mexico pay for that wall, mark my words,” Trump said at his presidential announcement speech, one of hundreds of times he made that promise.

He said during his 2016 campaign that it would cost $8 billion, or perhaps $12 billion, for his 1,000-mile wall. In fact, the federal government has allocated $15 billion for the 453 mile project, according to Time Magazine.

Mexico did not pay for the wall its leaders have refused since Trump first made his promise. After Trump’s inauguration, the president began suggesting that the U.S. would initially pay, but that Mexico would reimburse the U.S. for the wall.

That has also not happened. Taxpayers foot the bill for Trump’s wall.

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Donald Trump Promised To Build A Border Wall And Make Mexico Pay For It That Didnt Happen

“Mark my words,” Donald Trump said when he launched his presidential campaign on June 16, 2015.

Trump had just promised to “build a great wall,” on the U.S.-Mexico border, “very inexpensively.”

“And I will have Mexico pay for that wall,” he said.

More than three years into Trump’s presidency, his administration’s actions have not risen to his promise.

What did Trump accomplish?

Trump’s administration mainly replaced barriers installed by previous administrations with new ones that are expected to be more effective in stopping illegal immigration and drug smuggling. Mexico has not paid for any construction. Americans are paying the costs

The U.S.-Mexico border spans approximately 2,000 miles, and about a third of it has barriers raised by the U.S government over decades. That hasn’t increased during Trump’s presidency.

Some sections of the border have up to three layers of barriers that run parallel to the border. The first impediment a migrant heading to the United States may face is known by officials as the primary barrier fencing to stop people on foot and in vehicles. Secondary barriers, located behind the primary, are in place to stop pedestrians.

When Trump was campaigning to become president, the southwest border had 654 miles of primary barriers. Under Trump, that has increased by three miles, to 657.

The Trump administration says it’s built a new “border wall system” steel-bollard fences, all-weather roads, lighting, cameras and other surveillance technology.

Most Of The Wall Isn’t ‘wall’ At All

Trump pledges to build a wall

As well as scaling back his ambitions for the length of the border barrier, Mr Trump has also changed his view of what constitutes a wall.

Throughout his 2016 election campaign, when he described it, he talked about concrete.

But once elected, he began referring to a barrier made of steel, which would enable border agents to see through it.

And what has been built so far is mostly such steel fencing.

Specifically, much of the current wave of construction is 18-30ft reinforced bollard fencing, according to a report by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service.

“It poses a formidable barrier, but it is not the high, thick masonry structure that most dictionaries term a ‘wall’,” the report states.

However, the report adds that while the new barriers may not be made of concrete and in many cases replace existing structures, they do pose “a new obstacle that changes the calculus of those attempting to cross the border between ports of entry”.

Having said that, although Mr Trump’s barriers are not themselves made of concrete, they have been constructed using a significant amount of it, according to CBP.

Some 774,000 cubic yards of concrete have been used in construction so far, alongside 539,000 tonnes of steel.

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What Barriers Were Already Constructed When Trump Took Office

Trumps predecessors George W. Bush and Barack Obama builtmiles of barriers on the southern border while eschewing Trumps anti-immigrantrhetoric. These pro-immigration presidents put a great deal of money intosecuring the border because they believed that doing so would strengthen theircase for passage of comprehensive immigration reform.

The southern border is nearly 2,000 miles long. About 700 ofthose miles are on land the remaining 1,300 miles are the Rio Grande river. Accordingto the Government Accountability Office , prior to 2005 only about 150miles of the border was fenced. Over about eight years and with approximately$2.4 billion, the fencing was extended to approximately 650 miles. When Trumptook office almost all the land border had fencing of some type, such as chainlink, bollard fence , or vehicle fencing thats shapedlike a roadblock. You can see images of the fences, as well as breaches in eachtype of fence, in GAOs 2017 report.

How It’s Being Paid For Remains Controversial

Despite Mr Trump’s pledge on the campaign trail in 2016 to get Mexico to pay for the wall, it is the US government that has spent billions of dollars to expand and reconstruct it.

Just over $5bn in funding has come via traditional means through the CBP, but Mr Trump has also ordered almost $10bn in Department of Defense funding to be diverted – a move that has sparked legal action.

Back in 2019, after his request for a further $5.7bn for the wall was rejected and Congress allotted only $1.4bn, Mr Trump declared border control a national emergency and used powers under the National Emergencies Act to move cash from DoD budgets.

Some $6.3bn of counter-drugs funding and £3.6bn of military construction funding has so far been diverted to the wall project, according to the CBP.

But Mr Trump’s decision to bypass Congress in this way has triggered a number of legal challenges – one from a number of environmental groups, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, along with the states of California and New Mexico.

Two lower US courts have ruled in favour of these groups, concluding that the diversion of an amount of $2.5bn from DoD to construct barriers in California, New Mexico and Arizona was unlawful.

However, the Supreme Court – the highest federal court in the US – has allowed barrier construction using the funds to continue pending the appeals process. It will hear a challenge by President Trump’s administration against the lower courts’ decision next year.

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Those contract spikes were dramatic, but not isolated. A ProPublica/Texas Tribune review of federal spending data shows more than 200 contract modifications, at times awarded within just weeks or months after the original contracts, have increased the cost of the border wall project by billions of dollars since late 2017. This is particularly true this year, in the run-up to next weeks election. The cost of supplemental agreements and change orders alone at least $2.9 billion represents about a quarter of all the money awarded and more than what Congress originally appropriated for wall construction in each of the last three years.

President Donald Trump made construction of the border wall a signature issue during his 2016 campaign, claiming that his skills as a builder and businessman would allow his administration to build the wall in a more cost-efficient way than his predecessors. You know the wall is almost finished, he told a crowd of supporters in Arizona recently, and they werent paying a damn cent for the border wall. It was compliments of the federal government.

Yet an accounting of border wall contracts awarded during his presidency shows that his administration has failed to protect taxpayer interests or contain costs and stifled competition among would-be builders, experts say. In all, Trumps wall costs about five times more per mile than fencing built under the Bush and Obama administrations.

Practical Obstacles To Land Acquisition Are Legion

Trumpâs border wall faces contracting delays, a limited budget and a ...

Even in cases in which the government may be able to prove in court that it has a compelling public need for the land under eminent domain law, landowners can still drag out the process by challenging every move. Many landowners in Texas have done precisely that. In fact, as recently as 2019, some Texas landowners were still litigating land seizures from President George W. Bushs presidency.

As part of their opposition to the wall, congressional Democrats asked the Government Accountability Office to study obstacles to seizing the land. The resulting report reveals a process riddled with legal and practical land mines.

It would be easier to complete a large-scale project of this sort if it didnt have to be made public for political reasons. Consider how Grand Teton National Park was created. John D. Rockefeller Jr., the conservationist son of Standard Oils founder, dreamed of creating a large park around the Tetons and began surreptitiously buying up ranch land. He feared that if locals realized what he was doing and who was behind it, they would demand higher prices for their land.

So Rockefeller formed the Snake River Land Co. and hired circumspect agents to purchase land on his behalf. Once he acquired enough, he donated it to the federal government to create a national park. His intuition was right: Once some locals uncovered the scheme, they organized to oppose it and claimed that they had been manipulated and swindled.

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Learn More About Us Politics

Building a wall was one of Donald Trump’s key promises when he was campaigning to become US president.

It was an idea that divided the country, but it won Donald Trump many supporters.

It is over two years into his presidency, but he still wants to deliver on that promise.

A wall at the border between the US and Mexico would be designed to prevent people from entering the US illegally.

I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great great wall on our southern border and I’ll have Mexico pay for that wall.

President Donald Trump, Presidential Announcement Speech

Currently, there is a total of 650 miles of barrier along the border, which is 1,900 miles long.

The US Customs and Border Protection agency has said that, so far, it has replaced about 14 miles of scrap metal barrier with a bollard-style wall in San Diego, built two miles of wall in California, and 20 miles of new wall in Santa Teresa in New Mexico.

However, Donald Trump believes the existing barriers are not enough to stop people attempting to cross and he wants to build more.

In a televised speech, he stated: “All Americans are hurt by uncontrolled, illegal migration.

“We are out of space to hold them and we have no way to promptly return them back home to their country,” he continued.

President Trump wants to build a 1,000-mile wall made out of steel to prevent people from crossing the US-Mexico border.

, Democratic Party

Legislative Action To Overturn And Presidential Veto

Under the national emergency legislation, Congress can overturn a declaration of emergency legislatively. If the House passes a privileged resolution to overturn, the Senate is required to take up the resolution within eighteen days. If the Senate passes the resolution, by a simple majority vote, the bill goes to the president, who has the option of vetoing it. Congress can override the veto by a two-thirds vote in both houses.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on February 20, 2019, that Democrats would introduce such a resolution in two days. The measure, House Joint Resolution 46, stated: “Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, pursuant to section 202 of the National Emergencies Act , the national emergency declared by the finding of the President on February 15, 2019, in Proclamation 9844 is hereby terminated.”

The House voted to approve the bill on February 27 by a vote of 245182, with thirteen Republicans voting in favor. On March 3, Rand Paul became the fourth Republican senator to declare he would vote for the resolution, improving the chances of passage. The next day he asserted that “at least” ten other Republican senators told him they would also vote for the resolution. On March 14, the Senate voted 5941 to support the bill to overturn Trump’s emergency declaration, with twelve Republicans voting in favor.

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