Build The Wall Enforce The Law Act Introduced
A January 2018 Trump administration proposal for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection called for $18 billion in funding for the wall over the following ten years. It called for “316 miles of additional barrier by September 2027, bringing total coverage to 970 miles , or nearly half the border”, according to the Associated Press, and called for 407 mi of replacement fencing. While on the campaign trail in February 2016, Trump claimed the cost to be just $8 billion for the wall.
The Build the Wall, Enforce the Law Act of 2018 was introduced on October 12 by then-House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy Estimated at $23.4 billion, the bill, along with the $1.6 billion from the $1.3 trillion spending bill, would have amounted to the $25 billion projected to complete the larger and fortified wall. McCarthy’s bill included several immigration enforcement proposals, funding cuts for sanctuary cities, easing up the process to deport illegal immigrant gang members, and the stalled bill Kate’s Law.
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.
Public Acquisition Of Land
Additionally, privately owned land adjacent to the border would have to be acquired by the U.S. government to be built upon. Property owners in southern Texas will lose easy access to significant portions of their land as the wall is built along but some distance from the Rio Grande. Historic gravesites in South Texas may be impacted. In 2017, satirical party-game publisher Cards Against Humanity purchased a plot of land on the border to prevent the wall from being built there.
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Appropriated Border Wall Funds
Furthermore, Bush makes a dubious claim that wall construction was funded by duly appropriated dollars during the Trump days.
The Trump administration initially requested $13.3 billion through 2020 for wall construction, but Congress provided $4.47 billion through Department of Homeland Security appropriations, according to the Congressional Research Service. Of that total, about $1 billion was directed to barrier replacement projects, $1.4 billion was directed to planning and $2 billion was directed to construction needs in the Rio Grande Valley sector.
Funds appropriated by Congress for wall construction are legally obligated to be used consistent with their appropriated purpose, no matter the administration in office.
The only other money appropriated to border wall construction was part of a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill passed by Congress in 2020. That bill included $900 billion for COVID-19 relief and nearly $1.4 billion for wall funding. Biden has since paused the flow of those funds to border wall construction projects.
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Since January 2017, ~$15 billion has been identified to construct ~738 miles of new border wall system through a combination of Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense funding and the Treasury Forfeiture Fund , the memo reads. Funding received supports planning, design, real estate, environmental, construction and oversight activities.
The Wall Is Like A Battery Power For Racial Division
Like the wall itself, Trumps Tuesday visit to the U.S./Mexico border was surrounded by controversy. Local activists and politicians spoke publicly against Trumps visit and called on the White House to cancel it out of fear of further violence. Meanwhile, Trump faces pressure to resign from office, and is facing being impeached for the second time for inciting a mob of supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Local activists expressed concerns for the safety of marginalized communities who live along the border in light of acts of violence committed by Trump supporters at the Capitol. Some shared their fears of continuing the spread of COVID-19 because large crowds are expected to show up when the president speaks in front of the wall on Tuesday. Others shared that they were offended by Trump visiting one of the locations impacted by Zero Tolerance Policy, when thousands of children were separated from their parents upon entering the U.S.
One complaint consistently expressed by opposers since Trump first made his campaign promise to build the wall is that it is a symbol of racism and xenophobia. The wall is like a battery power for racial division, Laredo activist and organizer Juan Ruiz said in a public statement on Monday. Trump is coming here to get recharged, and power up his base. Biden needs to shut it off.
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Border Protection Commissioner Admits No New Border Wall Miles Built Despite Trump’s Claim Of ‘great Progress’
President Donald Trump has been claiming that the border wall is well underway in construction, but the acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner was unable to support those remarks after repeated questioning by a reporter.
The exchange occurred on Thursday when a reporter, whose identity was not clear from a C-SPAN video, asked acting CBP commissioner Mark Morgan for a status update on “how many miles of wall has been constructed, not wall that’s replacing old wall, but new wall that has been built to this point.”
“So 78 miles of new wall has been built,” Morgan replied.
The reporter, skeptical about Morgan’s claim, pushed him further.
“Much of that obviously is replacing wall that formerly existed, that the president said was insufficient,” the reporter said. “How many miles of wall where there was no wall whatsoever?”
Morgan responded that “every mile of wall that is being built is a new mile of wall.”
The reporter asked again for Morgan to differentiate between renovated or replaced wall, and wall where no barrier previously existed.
“So right now, 78 miles have been built, have been built where there was an existing form of barrier,” Morgan said, effectively admitting that none of the wall that has been constructed has been in new areas.
Morgan then remarked on plans for new border wallthat have not yet come to fruition.
“That’s correct, that’s correct,” Morgan admitted.
Trump’s Wall: How Much Has Been Built During His Term
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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Verify: Did Trump Build 400 Miles Of Border Wall
PHOENIX The Department of Homeland Security held a ceremony in Texas on Thursday to commemorate 400 miles of new border wall constructed under President Donald Trumps administration.
QUESTION: Did the Trump administration accomplish building 400 miles of new border wall?
The milestone comes less than a week before the 2020 presidential election and Trump is using it as a reminder to voters that hes keeping his promises.
In order to verify whether Trump’s administration has built 400 miles of new border wall, 12 News used three sources: Homeland Security data, original reporting at the border by NBC News, and The Center for Biological Diversity.
According to CBP figures, 371 miles of the new wall had been completed earlier this month and the government is adding about 5 miles of wall per week.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf announced Thursday the 400-mile mark had been met.
Even our most ardent critics recognize a wall is being built, said Wolf. A border wall system is effective. A border wall system saves lives.
In early October, an NBC News crew captured images of bulldozers hauling rocks off a mountain in southern Arizona in preparation for new wall construction where a wall didnt exist before. This scene is rare, however.
Homeland Security concedes that only about nine miles of the new wall has been constructed on land where barriers did not exist before.
Explainer: Why Is Trump Visiting The Border Wall In The Last Days Of His Presidency
By Mimi Dwyer
4 Min Read
LOS ANGELES – U.S. President Donald Trump will visit the U.S.-Mexico border on Tuesday just a week before he is due to leave office to tout what he views as one of his biggest accomplishments: the partial construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump plans to visit the wall in Alamo, Texas, a town in Texas Rio Grande Valley. It is distinct from the site of the Battle of the Alamo, a pivotal Texan loss in the Texas Revolution, which was later used by some Texans to invoke a battle cry. The White House denied any symbolism in Trumps choice of destination.
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Our Rating: Partly False
Based on our research, the Facebook post is PARTLY FALSE because some of it was not supported by our research. More than 3 miles of the border wall have been built under Trump. However, the rest of the claims about Mexico, Hillary Clinton, Obamacare, the deficit, unemployment, and the pandemic are true.
How Many People Worked On The Border Wall
The number of construction workers who worked on the wall isnt readily available. On December 17, 2020, acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan tweeted a claimwithout listing his sourcesthat canceling the border wall contracts will cost taxpayers billions of dollars in termination costs, leave critical materials and innovative technology behind, and force thousands of construction workers to lose their jobs.
According to Construction Dive, the U.S. will save $2.6 billion by canceling the construction, even after termination costs.
Also, the construction contracts might get repurposed instead of getting canceled. In his proclamation, Biden directed his undersecretaries to develop a plan for the redirection of funds concerning the southern border wall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law. The development of the plan shall include consideration of terminating or repurposing contracts with private contractors engaged in wall construction, while providing for the expenditure of any funds that the Congress expressly appropriated for wall construction, consistent with their appropriated purpose.
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How Much Was Actually Built
As of Jan. 8, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the Trump administration had completed 453 miles of border barrier overall.
Much of it replaces barriers that had been put in place by previous administrations, with only 80 miles of primary and secondary barrier in areas where there were previously no structures, according to CBP.
Promise: The Wall Will Be ‘big Beautiful’ And ‘concrete’ Status: Not Exactly
Trump spent a lot of time as a candidate talking about how his big, beautiful border wall would look. He often said it would be made out of concrete he said it would be 35 or 40 or 55 or 80 feet tall, depending on the rally.
The politicians would come up to me, and theyd say, You know, Donald, you cant build the wall. I said, You have to be kidding. You have to be kidding. Concrete plank, you have to be kidding. Precast, precast, right? Boom. Bing. Done. Keep going, he said in August 2016.
As president, he spent millions on border wall prototypes some concrete, some steel to test new border wall structures all eight were vulnerable to breaching and have since been torn down.
The Trump administration has continued to use steel bollard fencing designs for border barriers, just like the Obama administration.
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Uncertain Territory: Implications Of The Border Wall Construction
Walls do not only act as barriers. They also exist to grant a sense of safety and control. However, they are there primarily to divide. It aims to keep the things you want in and keep the things you dont want out. There are merits to this physical division, especially on the US-Mexico border. A border wall system may not keep drug and human traffickers out. However, it can serve as a deterrence and countermeasure. But, there are also other pressing concerns, such as the negative effects of putting up that wall:
The implications of the border wall construction, from its physical system to the policies and execution of them, is a complex issue. It has more nuances than extremely partisan citizens could admit. Economic repercussions, whether positive or negative, are relative to every person. For instance, some companies may profit from cheaper labor, but others may get run out of business because they cant compete. There is no blanket solution.
However, there is no disputing the facts and numbers. There are problems to be fixed when it comes to illegal immigration. Maybe immigrant-related crimes are not at historically crisis levels, but they still exist. The answer may not be Trumps wall. But, a type of barrier may also be part of the solution. For now, it is speculation. We cannot truly know until we get there. It is still an uncertain territory.
References:
What’s Joe Biden’s Plan For The Border
President-elect Joe Biden has said that he will not continue further construction of the wall.
He said he would not build “another foot” and made clear he opposed taking funds from the Department of Defense.
Instead, the Democratic president-elect plans to focus on using technology along the border to detect illegal activity.
Joe Biden’s official website says: “Biden will direct federal resources to smart border enforcement efforts, like investments in improving screening infrastructure at our ports of entry.”
However, it is unclear what the new administration will do with contracts for wall construction which have already been awarded under Mr Trump – but are as yet not finished.
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