The future of Trump’s border wall: What we know after Biden halts construction
President Joe Biden last week halted construction of the border wall on the southern border — putting the project’s future in limbo.
Former President Donald Trump’s administration says it obtained roughly $15 billion toward building the barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border, a key promise of his 2016 presidential campaign. Before leaving office, the Trump administration — which declared a national emergency at the border to help fund the wall — said about 450 miles of the wall system had been constructed, The Associated Press reports.
Biden pledged during his campaign to stop construction of the wall, telling NPR in August that there would “not be another foot of wall constructed” under his administration.
Shortly after taking office Wednesday, Biden signed an executive order pausing construction on the border wall. The order is one of the numerous executive actions — some overturning Trump-era policies — the president has signed since entering the White House.
Contractors were notified they must stop all construction by Wednesday to comply with the order, according to Border Report. Here’s what we know about the wall’s future.
Timeline on halting construction
Biden’s executive order last week required that all construction on the border wall pause as soon as possible — and no later than a week after he signed it.
His executive order also immediately paused the “obligation of funds” related to the wall’s construction.
The construction pause will allow the Biden administration to assess the “legality of the funding and contracting methods” used for construction and assess the consequences of ceasing construction.
Biden gave his administration roughly two months to develop a plan for how the funds could be spent elsewhere and determine how much it would cost to cease the contracts.
“After the plan is developed, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall take all appropriate steps to resume, modify or terminate projects and to otherwise implement the plan,” a proclamation about the order says.
Could the wall come down?
Biden has not committed to tearing down what’s already been constructed, NPR reported in August.
“I’m going to make sure that we have border protection but it’s going to be based on making sure that we use high tech capacity to deal with it at the ports of entry,” he told NPR.
He told NPR that land confiscations for construction will end. The Trump administration had planned to seize a total of 5,275 acres of private land, CBS News reported off a watchdog report in November.
Rep. Raul Grijalva — a Democrat from Arizona whose district includes the Tohono O’odham Nation, which includes 62 miles of international border — urged Biden to “listen to diverse voices of the borderlands that have been ignored for the past four years.”
“This includes bringing border communities, tribes, environmentalists and wildlife advocates to the table to craft a border policy that is truly representative of the people,” he tweeted.
Some Republican lawmakers were critical of Biden’s order to halt construction on the wall.
Rep. Debbie Lesko of Arizona tweeted she was “disappointed” in the decision, and Rep. Diana Harshbarger of Tennessee derided the move and Biden’s other executive orders as “a liberal agenda to score points with the international community.”
But some advocacy and environmental groups have called for the wall to come down completely.
“So on day one, Joe Biden could stop the construction and cancel the efforts to seize people’s lands. But on day two, he should immediately start looking at the damage that’s been done and where these walls need to be torn down,” Randy Serraglio, a southwest conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, told Azfamily.com in December.
The American Civil Liberties Union tweeted last week that ending construction on the wall is “a welcome start but simply not enough.”
“It’s time to start tearing the unlawful wall down,” the ACLU tweeted.
An ABC News/Ipsos poll of 504 adults released Sunday found more than half — 55% — support Biden’s decision to end the emergency declaration funding border wall construction. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
This story was originally published January 26, 2021 at 9:54 AM with the headline "The future of Trump’s border wall: What we know after Biden halts construction."
