President Biden Signs Executive Order Halting Construction of Border Wall
In one of his 17 executive orders signed his first day in office, President Biden stopped construction on the border wall between the United States and Mexico. The executive order said that all projects on the border wall needed to stop within a week of the order being signed. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed that border wall construction has stopped. According to the statement the CBP gave, "CBP, in coordination with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has suspended wall construction projects except for activities that are safety related. All projects are in compliance with the President’s Proclamation." There were many different projects for wall-building taking place at different parts of the border. These projects are still under contract even with the order having been signed.
According to Fox News, Biden wants to pause construction on the border wall in order to assess “the legality of the funding, contracting methods, as well as the consequences of stopping the projects.” This border wall has been controversial. Republicans say that it is necessary to help stop illegal immigration. Border activists and Democrats, including Biden, say that it is not effective and inhumane. Trump officials said that stopping the building of the border wall would cost a lot of money in lost jobs and canceled building contracts. However, according to Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, the executive order stopping construction on the border wall is a “promising step in our work to halt construction of the ineffective and wasteful border wall and undo the damage that borderlands have experienced these past four years." He goes on to say, “However, our work continues. I remain steadfast in my commitment to working with the new administration until every border wall contract is terminated and all construction crews leave our border communities."
According to Biden’s executive order, "Like every nation, the United States has a right and a duty to secure its borders and protect its people against threats. But building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution. It is a waste of money that diverts attention from genuine threats to our homeland security."
Trump worked last year to have 450 miles (720 kilometers) of border wall built. He says that this goal was completed eight days before he left office. Trump had allocated $15 billion toward building 738 miles (1,181 kilometers), but there are still 350 miles under contract with cancellation fees that Biden would have to deal with if he keeps his promise to not build any more border wall. According to then-acting CBP chief Mark Morgan, “It’ll cost taxpayers billions of dollars, billions of dollars in settlement fees. We’re going to walk away from areas of the wall that have already been constructed." President Biden wants to know in two months “on how much the government committed, how much it would cost to extricate itself and whether contracts could be repurposed for other uses” according to PBS.org.
On February 22, the Supreme Court will be discussing the billions of dollars that Trump took from the Defense Department for border wall construction when Congress would not give him the money, leading to a 35-day government shutdown in 2017. The plaintiff in this case claims that the money was wrongly taken from the Defense Department. It is unsure what position President Biden will take when his administration appears before the Supreme Court.
Only time will tell what the long-standing effects of President Biden’s executive order to cease construction on the border wall will be on different factors like illegal immigration and jobs.
