Joe Biden halts border wall building after Donald Trump's final surge

In the days before Joe Biden became US president construction crews worked quickly to finish Donald Trumps wall at an iconic crossborder park overlooking the Pacific Ocean which thenfirst lady Pat Nixon inaugurated in 1971 as a symbol of international friendshipBiden on Wednesday ordered a ldquopauserdquo on all wall construction within a week one of 17 executive orders issued on his first day in office including six dealing with immigrationThe order leaves billions of dollars of work unfinished but still under contract after Trump worked feverishly last year to build more than 450 miles 720 km a goal he said he achieved eight days before leaving officeAs of January 15 the government spent 61 billion of the 108 billion in work it signed contracts to have done according to a Senate Democratic aide with knowledge of the contracts who spoke on condition of anonymity because details have not been made publicThe full amount under contract would have extended Trumps wall to 664 miles 1069 km Biden seeking to fulfil a pledge not to build ldquoanother footrdquo gave his administration two months to determine how much it would cost to cancel contracts and whether money could be spent elsewhereThe Senate aide said fees would be negotiated with contractors and the administration would seek to spend whatevers left on related uses on the border such as roads lights sensors and other technologyPublicly the Trump administration said it secured 15 billion for the wall The Senate aide said it was actually 1645 billion as of Wednesday 58 billion of which was appropriated by Congress and the rest diverted from the Defence and Treasury departments The Trump administration notified the Senate aide on January 14 that it was moving ahead with a contract for 863 million but it was not awardedThe Army Corps of Engineers which has awarded wall contracts with Defence Department money said Thursday that it told crews not to install any additional barriers and to limit activity over the next few days to what is ldquonecessary to safely prepare each site for a suspension of workrdquoJohn Kurc an activist who posts videos of dynamite blasts by wall construction crews said he saw one dynamite charge being set Wednesday afternoon in Guadalupe Canyon in easternmost Arizona even as the inauguration was playing out in WashingtonHeavy machines have been crawling over roadways gouged into rocky mountainsides tapping open holes for posts on US Bureau of Land Management property Advocates in Texas Rio Grande Valley the busiest area for illegal crossings and near Nogales Arizona saw idle construction equipment ThursdayBut in San Diego crews were out replacing a steel fence with imposing tightly spaced poles topped with flat steel plates rising 30 feet 9 metres said Dan Watman of Friends of Friendship Park a group that promotes public access to the crossborder park overlooking the Pacific OceanContractors began last week said Watman who was informed of the project in a December conference call with Border Patrol agents but got no explanation for itThe agency referred questions to the White House which had no immediate comment Trump said the border wall would be ldquovirtually impenetrablerdquo and paid for by Mexico which never happened While the wall is much more formidable than the barriers it replaced it isnt uncommon for smugglers to guide people over or through itPortions can be sawed with power tools sold at home improvement storesDespite Trumps bravado Border Patrol officials have said the wall was never meant to stop everyone but rather to slow their advanceJose Edgar Zuleta whose business selling religious jewelery in the Mexican city of Puebla dried up during the coronavirus pandemic cleared two walls in Friendship Park in October with a special ladderHe moved through brush in a heavily patrolled area for about half an hour before getting caught His 21yearold son who went ahead of him got picked up hours later The crossborder park has hosted yoga classes concerts and countless news conferences including one in 2018 with thenAttorney General Jeff Sessions to announce a ldquozero tolerancerdquo policy that caused thousands of children to be separated from their parents at the borderSince 2012 after construction of a double wall at the park the Border Patrol has opened a gate many weekends for up to 10 people at a time to exchange words with those in MexicoSLSCO Ltd of Galveston Texas won contracts to build double walls blanketing 14 miles 22 km in San Diego Company spokeswoman Liz Rogers said work at Friendship Park is separate and done by another companyThe Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments next month on whether the government illegally diverted billions of dollars from the Defence Department to build the wall after Congress denied money that Trump sought triggering a 35day government shutdown in 2017It is unclear if Biden will adopt Trumps position before the Supreme CourtThe governments brief is due February 11 Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador welcomed Bidens decision to stop wall construction but in defence of Trump noted that US presidents going back to 1990s built border barriers He displayed a chart to prove his pointThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever