Biden Taps Harris To Stem Migration Flow From Central America
White House press secretary Jen Psaki recently distanced the president from the project but did not affirm Biden’s campaign trail promise.
“There are some components of the wall that had already been allocated, the funding, to continue building by Congress. So we are working within what is allowable, but our focus is not — we do not believe the wall is in answer,” Psaki told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega.
“There is some limited construction that has been funded and allocated for, but it is otherwise paused,” Psaki said.
Biden’s first budget proposal to Congress requested “no additional funding” for the wall and asked lawmakers to cancel any unspent funds at the end of 2021.
What Exactly Is Trump’s Border Wall And Why Does He Want $57bn For It
The president backed away from his threat to declare a national emergency over the wall, but his preoccupation with it persists
Donald Trump may have backed away froma threat to in order to bypass Congress and build a wall on the southern border, but his preoccupation with his 2016 campaign promise persists.
But what exactly is the wall and why is the president so intent on getting $5.7bn to fund it? Here are some answers to key questions:
Trump Did Get Mexico To Build A Wall Of Its Troops On Its Own Southern Border
Donald Trump has actually kept the main promise of his 2016 campaign, because Mexico is paying for a “border wall.” The only thing is that its not a physical wall and its not on the southwest border: Its a wall of Mexican National Guard members on the border between Mexico and Guatemala, working to keep Trump’s promises to the American people in the name of Mexican national security… and capitulation to their northern neighbor.
That wall was put to the test after thousands of Honduran migrants arrived at a bridge connecting southern Mexico and Guatemala on Saturday, clashing with Mexico’s National Guard after Mexican authorities shut down the bridge and attempted to stop the migrants from making unauthorized entry elsewhere in the border region by promising those that registered for asylum in Mexico that they could obtain jobs there.
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Stop : A Scene One Sheriff Calls ‘foolish’
“About January the 24th everything stopped. … To me, it’s just — just crazy.”
Joe Frank Martinez, Val Verde County sheriff
“I just think it’s foolish to leave this project as it is. My understanding is that they’re going to continue in the near future, but that’s yet to be seen.”
Joe Frank Martinez, Val Verde County sheriff
“If that happens, then we’re going to go back 20-30 years, where you’re going to get masses of people coming through here. Crime rate in my community will go up, because there’s no structure here.”
Joe Frank Martinez, Val Verde County sheriff
Why Trump Didnt Build The Wall When Republicans Controlled Congress
The construction of a physical barrier along the Mexican border has been Donald Trumps signature issue since he hit the campaign trail in 2015 and led repeated chants of Build the wall! After Trump won, he enjoyed two years when his fellow Republicans controlled both the Senate and House of Representatives. But he only began to insist on billions in wall funding after Democrats captured the House, precipitating the longest federal shutdown in U.S. history. If the border wall was as important to Trump as he says, why didnt Republicans provide the funds while they ruled Capitol Hill?
The answer to this political mystery is that the wall has never been a top priority for most Republicans. And their stance reflects limited enthusiasm for its construction among conservative policy-makers and voters alike. CONT.
David A. Hopkins , Washington Post
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Trump’s Executive Order To Build Border Wall Is A Start
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to push forward one of his biggest campaign promises: build a wall along the border with Mexico.
The executive order signed Jan. 25, five days after Trump’s inauguration, instructs departments and agencies to “deploy all lawful means” to secure the southern border, prevent further illegal immigration and to send immigrants in the country illegally back to their countries.
The order sets forth Trump’s policy to secure the border “through the immediate construction of a physical wall,” to prevent drug trafficking and terrorism.
It directs the secretary of homeland security to:
“In accordance with existing law, including the Secure Fence Act and IIRIRA, take all appropriate steps to immediately plan, design, and construct a physical wall along the southern border, using appropriate materials and technology to most effectively achieve complete operational control of the southern border.”
The order defines “wall” as “a contiguous, physical wall or other similarly secure, contiguous, and impassable physical barrier.”
It also asks the department to identify and allocate sources of federal funds for the planning, design, and construction of the physical wall, and to prepare congressional budget requests for the current and upcoming fiscal years.
In an interview with ABC News’ David Muir aired Jan. 25, Trump said wall construction would start in months.
Other experts have told us it could take years to build a border wall.
Trump Ties Wall Funding To Government Shutdown
Is President Donald Trump ready to compromise on his plan to make Mexico pay for a border wall? During an Aug. 22 rally in Phoenix, Trump brought up the wall many times but did not say that Mexico will pay for it, as he had repeatedly done on the campaign trail.
He did say one thing new to our ears: He threatened a government shutdown if “obstructionist Democrats” try to prevent the wall from being built.
“And we are building a wall on the southern border, which is absolutely necessary,” Trump said. “Now the obstructionist Democrats would like us not to do it. But believe me, if we have to close down our government, we’re building that wall.”
One possible source of funding is making its way through Congress.
The House of Representatives on July 27 passed a $790 billion funding bill that includes $1.6 billion for 28 miles of new levee wall and 46 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. Congress and the White House must agree on a funding plan before Sept. 30, the start of the next fiscal year.
Trump’s threat to shut down the government comes a few weeks after a leaked transcript of a phone call between Trump and Mexican President Pena Nieto showed the two leaders butting heads over which country would foot the bill.
During the , Trump asked Nieto to stop saying publicly that Mexico will not pay for the wall because it put Trump in a political bind.
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A Key Migrant Camp Is Emptying
Thousands who have made the journey to the southern US border have found refuge in temporary border communities – often in shanty towns with little infrastructure or resources and vulnerable to pressure from violent organised-crime gangs.
According to Human Rights Watch, these migrants are under threat from criminal organisations which kidnap them on the assumption that they have relatives in the US who could be extorted for money.
In the town of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, hundreds of people set up one such camp in 2018 near the entry point, in the scrubland on the banks of the Rio Grande.
Charities such as the World Food Kitchen, the Dignity Village collective and Global Response Management provide food, tents, clothing and medical care to those living in the camp, where around 50% of residents are under the age of 15.
But Andrea Leiner, director of strategic planning for GRM, says coronavirus and July’s Hurricane Hanna have had dire consequences.
Coronavirus restrictions have meant the border has been closed for all but essential travel and immigration hearings have been postponed.
Hurricane Hanna not only brought floods to the camp but also caused an infestation of rats, snakes and mosquitoes, forcing many residents to flee.
Ms Leiner says the repeated blows of plague, famine, and hurricane, on top of the legal restrictions, have drained people of hope.
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
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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.
There Is Other Ways To Get Over A Wall
Mexicans are not that stupid. They are human beings just like you and me. I am pretty sure they can find another way over the wall. Don’t even try to build one because it would be useless anyways. A waste of time and money. Also people are idiots. They should all go die in a hole. There is no reason to build a wall when it can bring us down to. Other countries especially Mexico can see this act as an act of war. It can also show how distrustful we are towards Mexico. It is very offensive.
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Impact On Mexicous Relations
The executive order soured relations between the U.S. and Mexico. Mexican PresidentEnrique Peña Nieto addressed Mexican citizens via a recorded message, in which he condemned Trump’s executive order and again said Mexico would not pay for the wall’s construction. Following a Twitter feud between the two leaders in which Trump threatened to cancel a planned meeting with Nieto in Washington, Nieto decided to cancel the meeting himself.
Addressing supporters, Mexican opposition politician Andrés Manuel López Obrador condemned the wall order as an insult to Mexico, and demanded the Mexican government to pursue claims against the American government in the United Nations.
In March 2017, Mexican congressman Braulio Guerra of Querétaro illegally climbed, and partially crossed, an existing 30-foot border fence on American soil dividing San Diego and Tijuana, saying that more walls would be ineffective.
The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Mexico opposed the border wall, and wrote that any Mexican company that participates in construction of the wall or supplies materials for construction would be committing “treason against the homeland”.
Trump Wall: How Much Has He Actually Built
BBC News
Building a “big, beautiful wall” between the US and Mexico was the signature promise of President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign. A concrete barrier, he said, would serve to stop what he described as a flow of illegal immigrants and drugs over the border.
But what actually happened to the wall? How much of it has been built? And how effective has it been?
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Push To Abandon The Wall
With little clarity as to the status of the wall or timetable for an announcement, Democrats and activists are intent on keeping Biden to his campaign commitment to stop construction.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., a leading House progressive, has called on Biden to tear down the entire project.
“The wall is a monument of xenophobia and hatred that does nothing to address the root causes of migration and asylum claims — violence and unrest in the countries of origin that the United States has often exacerbated,” Omar, a former refugee from Somalia, said in a statement.
On the other side of the party, border Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, said Biden should determine whether to tear down or continue building portions of the wall on a “case-by-case basis.”
He said the administration should redirect wall funds to technology and other border infrastructure and warned that Democrats could be punished by voters in the 2022 midterms for not taking a tougher position on border security in light of the migrant crisis and ongoing GOP attacks.
More than 172,000 migrants were taken into government custody at the southwest border in March, according to Customs and Border Protection, the largest single-month total in nearly two decades.
“They should just cease and desist. No more walls. People are going to get over it anyway. You’ve seen them drop the babies,” she said.
Donald Trump Stalls On Promise To Build A Wall Have Mexico Pay For It
President Donald Trump remains committed to building a border wall with Mexico, but he hasn’t been able to get the money to do it. And Mexico doesn’t seem poised to pay for it, either.
The federal government is in a partial shutdown because Trump says he won’t sign any spending bill that doesn’t include $5.7 billion to build the wall. Democrats in Congress are unwilling to vote for a bill providing that money.
Even though Trump is demanding billions for the wall from U.S. taxpayers, he’s also contending that the wall will be paid for through a renegotiated trade deal that hasn’t yet cleared U.S. Congress. It also needs final legislative approval from Mexico and Canada, the two other countries party to the agreement.
Trade experts have pushed back against Trump’s false claims that the renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement will pay for the wall. Trump claims that the United States will see added revenue from the potential deal. But even if U.S. tax revenue increases in response to increased revenues of U.S. firms, Congress would still need to allocate that money for the wall. Trump so far has failed to secure that wall money from Congress.
The Trump administration earlier received about $1.6 billion from Congress for border barriers. But that money wasn’t used to build any new wall. Conditions for the money said it could only be for designs previously used, such as fencing.
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