OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Joe Biden has shut down the last of Donald Trump’s border wall projects as hundreds — and even thousands — of illegal immigrants cross the U.S.-Mexico border every single day.
The Department of Homeland Security released a statement announcing that they will be terminating all border wall construction in Laredo and Rio Grande Valley Sectors.
DHS explicitly stated that it will not construct any new border barrier systems or execute permanent land acquisition related to these projects.
Below is the full announcement:
Consistent with the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) border barrier plan, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in coordination with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), intends to cancel the remaining border barrier contracts located within U.S. Border Patrol’s (USBP) Laredo Sector and all border barrier contracts located in the Rio Grande Valley Sector.
CBP will then begin environmental planning and actions consistent with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for previously planned border barrier system projects located within the Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, and El Centro Sectors.
Environmental planning activities will cover projects funded with DHS’s Fiscal Year 2018-2021 barrier system appropriations where construction had not started. These activities include additional biological, cultural, and natural resource surveys for project areas where no data have been previously collected. CBP will also conduct comprehensive and targeted outreach with interested stakeholders, including impacted landowners, tribes, state and local elected officials, and federal agencies.
These activities will not involve any construction of new border barrier or permanent land acquisition.
The Administration continues to call on Congress to cancel remaining border wall funding and instead fund smarter border security measures, like border technology and modernization of land ports of entry, that are proven to be more effective at improving safety and security at the border. Until and unless Congress cancels those funds, the law requires DHS to use the funds consistent with their appropriated purpose, and beginning environmental planning activities is part of the Department’s plan to do so.
This announcement has no impact on previously approved remediation projects necessary to address life, safety, and environmental restoration issues in the Rio Grande Valley, San Diego, and El Centro Sectors in accordance with the Department’s plan.
The Biden administration is paying contractors tens of millions of dollars not to build the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a former head of the Border Patrol.
Rodney Scott told Fox News Tuesday evening that while the administration is shelling out millions per day to those contractors, the country is experiencing a historic amount of illegal border crossings and drug smuggling, both of which a wall would dramatically reduce.
Asked by anchor Bret Baier what type of actions Biden and his administration took regarding the border wall after taking power in January, Scott said the president issued a 60-day construction moratorium.
“We’re supposed to do an in-depth study and then come up with a plan going forward,” Scott said.
He continued: “As Border Patrol did its part, everything, that was done within about two weeks, several briefings later, there really had not been any decisions made, it went well beyond the 60 days. Many of those projects today are just still on hold. So we’re paying contractors, for a while it was almost $5 million a day between DOD and DHS.”
Baier then interjected to ask: “Wait, $5 million a day to not build the wall?”
“To not build the wall,” Scott reiterated.
