Tag: Trump border wall

House Republicans move to censure Biden and accidentally admit Trump broke the law

American Independent logo

The Government Accountability Office already rejected Republicans’ argument that delaying the border wall was illegal.

Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert and 23 other House Republicans introduced a resolution on Wednesday to censure President Joe Biden for ending his predecessor’s immigration policies. But in doing so they inadvertently admitted that former President Donald Trump broke the law when he tried to pressure Ukraine into announcing it was investigating his political opponents in 2019.

The proposed resolution would express the House of Representatives’ “disapproval of the failure to uphold the constitutional duty to ‘take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed’ and the usurpation of the legislative authority of Congress by the President of the United States.”

“My censure bill holds President Biden accountable for his actions—or lack thereof—at the border,” Boebert said in a press release. Continue reading.

Biden administration offers plan for unused border wall funds

Roll Call Logo

Money would be used for border technology, cleanup of wall sites, schools for military personnel and more

The White House released a plan Friday to use unspent funds previously set aside by the Trump administration for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border to repair damage caused by wall construction while returning other funds to the military.

In the report issued by the Office of Management and Budget, the departments of Homeland Security and Defense spelled out plans to redirect billions of dollars away from wall construction. 

Biden’s budget office also calls on Congress to “cancel any border barrier funds that remain at the end of the year so that these resources can instead be used for modern, privacy-protective, and effective border management measures like enhanced technology between points of entry and improved infrastructure at Land Ports of Entry.” Continue reading.

Armed Mexicans Were Smuggled In to Guard Border Wall, Whistle-Blowers Say

New York Times logo

In a complaint unsealed on Friday, whistle-blowers working on President Trump’s wall said that contractors were illegally bringing in Mexican guards to protect construction sites.

WASHINGTON — Two whistle-blowers have accused contractors building President Trump’s border wall of smuggling armed Mexican security teams into the United States to guard construction sites, even building an illegal dirt road to speed the operation, according to court documents unsealed by a federal judge on Friday.

The two employees, who were both contracted to provide security at the sites, accused the company, Sullivan Land Services Co., or S.L.S. — as well as a subcontractor, Ultimate Concrete of El Paso — of hiring workers who were not vetted by the United States government, overcharging for construction costs and making false statements about those actions.

The whistle-blowers said Ultimate Concrete went so far as to build a dirt road to expedite illegal border crossings to sites in San Diego, using construction vehicles to block security cameras. An unnamed supervisor at the Army Corps of Engineers approved the operation, according to a complaint filed in February and released on Friday. Continue reading.

Supreme Court declines to halt Trump border wall

The Hill logoThe Supreme Court on Friday declined to block the Trump administration from using $2.5 billion in reallocated Pentagon funds to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

In a 5-4 ruling that broke along ideological lines, the court’s conservative majority denied a bid by interest groups to halt construction after a federal appeals court last month said the use of defense funding for the project is illegal. The court’s four more liberal justices dissented from the ruling.

The Sierra Club, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other challengers had asked the justices to lift their order from last July that allowed President Trump to begin spending the funds while legal challenges proceeded through the courts. Continue reading.

Trump visits border barrier in push of immigration message amid pandemic and civil unrest

Washington Post logoSAN LUIS, ARIZONA — President Trump toured a border barrier along the U.S.-Mexico line here Tuesday, seeking to tout what he views as a key reelection accomplishment in a critical state as his bid for a second term has been upended by a resurgent pandemic, an economic crisis and racial unrest.

Trump, who has increasingly focused on immigration during the novel coronavirus crisis, said he was marking the 200th mile of border wall erected since his election and reviving one of the most contentious issues of a first term now defined by more pressing challenges.

“It’s never mentioned anymore — the wall is never mentioned anymore,” Trump said during a roundtable in Yuma. “The reason it’s not mentioned — it’s not that we won the battle. It’s that it’s such a compelling thing to have done. Because you see the number, and where that wall is going, as you’re seeing, it’s like magic.” Continue reading.

4 Years Later, Only 3 New Miles of ‘Wall’ And Not A Single Peso From Mexico

Trump visited Arizona to tout 212 miles of new fence — but only three were built where there was previously no barrier.

WASHINGTON ― Four years after promising a 2,000-mile “Great Wall” made of reinforced concrete and paid for by Mexico, President Donald Trump took a victory lap for securing three new miles of steel fence that was paid for by raiding the military budget.

“This is the most powerful and comprehensive border wall structure anywhere in the world,” Trump said Tuesday during a visit to the Mexican border at Yuma, Arizona, where he said 212 miles have been built and that close to 500 would be finished by the end of the year. “Our border has never been more secure.”

In fact, only three of those 212 miles are along parts of the border that previously had no barrier. The rest have replaced existing fencing, a process that began under President George W. Bush and continued under President Barack Obama. Continue reading.

People are sawing through and climbing over Trump’s border wall. Now contractors are being asked for ideas to make it less vulnerable.

Washington Post logoU.S. Customs and Border Protection has asked contractors for help making President Trump’s border wall more difficult to climb over and cut through, an acknowledgment that the design currently being installed along hundreds of miles of the U.S.-Mexico boundary remains vulnerable.

The notice of the request for information that CBP posted gives federal contractors until June 12 to suggest new anti-breaching and anti-climbing technology and tools, while also inviting proposals for “private party construction” that would allow investors and activists to acquire land, build a barrier on it and sell the whole thing to the government.

Trump continues to campaign for reelection on a promise to complete nearly 500 miles of new barrier along the border with Mexico by the end of 2020, but administration officials have scaled back that goal in recent weeks. The president has ceased promoting the $15 billion barrier as “impenetrable” in the months since The Washington Post reported that smuggling crews have been cutting through new sections of the structure using inexpensive power tools. Continue reading.

Border Wall Land Grabs Accelerate as Owners Shelter From Pandemic

New York Times logoWith private property proving hard to acquire, the administration has stepped up efforts to secure land on the Mexican border for President Trump’s wall.

WASHINGTON, DC — The Trump administration is accelerating efforts to seize private property for President Trump’s border wall, taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to survey land while its owners are confined indoors, residents along the Rio Grande say.

“Is that essential business?” asked Nayda Alvarez, 49, who recently found construction markers on the land in Starr County, Texas, that has been in her family for five generations. “That didn’t stop a single minute during the shelter in place or stay at home.”

The federal government brought a flurry of lawsuits against landowners in South Texas to survey, seize and potentially begin construction on private property in the first five months of the year as the administration rushed to deliver on Mr. Trump’s promise to build 450 miles of wall by the end of the year, which he downgraded on Thursday to 400. While Mr. Trump has built less than 200 of those miles, his administration has brought 78 lawsuits against landowners on the border, 30 of them this year. Continue reading.

The small Native American tribe fighting Trump’s wall in South Texas

When President Trump announced plans to build a wall along the Rio Grande River, Juan Mancias smelled a rat. Mancias is the Carrizo/Comecrudo tribal leader and a founding member of the Texas chapter of the American Indian Movement — not to mention an experienced human rights advocate and Native rights activist. When Trump first touted his plans to run a border wall through South Texas back in October 2018, Mancias couldn’t make sense of how this new construction would help protect the border, where his family has lived for generations. Through some document digging, though, he’d eventually uncover a possible alternative reason the government was so desperately seeking a border fence in this area — and Mancias thinks it has little to do with national security.
The land in question spans 1,954 miles in Texas along the state’s border with Mexico. It snakes through Cameron, Starr, and Hidalgo counties, passing through the city of Brownsville and up to McAllen. Included in this region are multiple Carrizo/Comecrudo tribe burial sites stretching from the Garcia Pasture down to the Eli Jackson Cemetery. The Carrizo/Comecrudo people were in Texas long before the Spanish colonists or any other white folks set foot on their land; the entire Rio Grande Valley is their ancestral home. Continue reading “The small Native American tribe fighting Trump’s wall in South Texas”

Scandal-plagued construction firm wins $1.3 billion border wall contract after repeatedly wooing Trump on Fox News

AlterNet logoA scandal-plagued North Dakota company landed a $1.28 billion contract to build a small stretch of border wall after President Donald Trump repeatedly brought up the firm to officials following the CEO’s Fox News blitz.

The Army Corps of Engineers awarded the massive contract to North Dakota-based Fisher Sand and Gravel on May 6, the Arizona Daily Star first reported. The funds will be used to build 42 miles of border wall in Arizona. That figure marks the biggest contract awarded to any company for a stretch of wall to date. Fisher previously received a separate $400 million contract last December despite little experience building projects like the border wall.

When the company’s initial bids were passed over by government officials, CEO Tommy Fisher launched a media blitz, The Washington Post reported, repeatedly appearing on Fox News in an effort to directly appeal to Trump. The president an avid viewer of cable news, frequently tweeting about segments he watches. Continue reading.