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SAN DIEGO (AP) – In the days leading up to Joe Biden’s appointment as president, construction crews worked quickly to complete Donald Trump’s wall in an iconic cross-border park overlooking the Pacific Ocean, which the first lady of the era, Pat Nixon, inaugurated in 1971 as a symbol of international friendship.
Biden on Wednesday ordered a “pause” on all wall construction in the week, one of 17 executive orders issued on the first day of his term in office, six of which relate to immigration.
Order leaves billions of dollars in unfinished – but still under contract – work after Trump worked feverishly last year to build more than 720 kilometers, a goal he said he achieved eight days before leaving office.
As of Jan. 15, the government has spent $ 6.1 billion of the $ 10.8 billion of work it has signed contracts for, according to a Democratic Senate aide familiar with the contracts who spoke out under the guise of anonymity as details have not been made public. The total amount under contract would have extended Trump’s wall to 664 miles (1,069 kilometers).
Biden, seeking to fulfill his promise not to build “another foothold,” gave his administration two months to determine how much it would cost to cancel contracts and whether the money could be spent elsewhere. The Senate adviser said the fees would be negotiated with the contractors and the administration would look to spend what’s left on related uses at the border, such as roads, lights, sensors and other technology.
Publicly, the Trump administration has said it got $ 15 billion for the wall. Senate Aid said it was actually $ 16.45 billion on Wednesday, of which $ 5.8 billion was earmarked by Congress and the rest diverted from the Defense and Treasury departments.
The Trump administration informed the Senate aide on Jan. 14 that it was moving forward with an $ 863 million contract, but it was not awarded.
The Army Corps of Engineers, which awarded wall contracts with money from the Defense Ministry, said Thursday it had told aircrews not to install additional barriers and to limit activity over the next few days to what is “necessary to safely prepare each site for a suspension.” working. “
John Kurc, an activist who posts videos of dynamite explosions by wall-building crews, said he saw a load of dynamite unfold Wednesday afternoon in Guadalupe Canyon, in eastern Arizona, even as the inauguration took place in Washington.
Heavy machinery crawled on roads carved into the rocky sides of the mountains, digging open holes for poles on the property of the United States Bureau of Land Management.
Defenders in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, the busiest area for illegal crossings, and near Nogales, Ariz., Saw idle construction equipment Thursday.
But in San Diego, crews were replacing a steel fence with towering, closely spaced poles topped with flat steel plates rising 9 meters (30 feet), said Dan Watman of Friends of Friendship Park, a group that promotes public access to the cross. border park overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
The contractors started last week, said Watman, who was briefed on the project on a December conference call with border patrol officers, but was given no explanation. The agency referred questions to the White House, which made no immediate comment.
Trump said the border wall would be “virtually impenetrable” and paid for by Mexico, which never happened. While the wall is much more formidable than the barriers it replaced, it’s not uncommon for smugglers to guide people over or through it. Portions can be sawn off with power tools sold at home improvement stores.
Despite Trump’s bravado, border patrol officials said the wall was never designed to stop everyone, but rather to slow their progress.
Jose Edgar Zuleta, whose religious jewelry business in the Mexican city of Puebla ran dry during the coronavirus pandemic, cleaned two walls in Friendship Park in October with a special ladder. He moved through the brush in a heavily guarded area for about half an hour before getting caught. His 21-year-old son, who preceded him, was recovered hours later.
The cross-border park has hosted yoga classes, concerts and countless press conferences, including one in 2018 with then Attorney General Jeff Sessions to announce a “zero tolerance” policy that brought about the separation thousands of their parents’ children at the border.
An ancient bullfighting ring and ocean-view restaurants surround the Mexican side; wetland scrub extends as far as the United States.
Years ago, people would bake, kiss and shake hands through a chain link fence. Watman remembers going back and forth with tools in 2007 to plant a cross-border garden that is still standing.
Since 2012, after the construction of a double wall in the park, the border patrol has opened a door on many weekends that can accommodate up to 10 people at a time to exchange words with those in Mexico.
SLSCO Ltd. of Galveston, Texas, won contracts to build 22-kilometer double walls in San Diego. Company spokeswoman Liz Rogers said the work at Friendship Park was separated and carried out by another company.
The Supreme Court is due to hear arguments next month on whether the government illegally embezzled billions of dollars from the Defense Department to build the wall after Congress refused the money Trump wanted, triggering a shutdown of the 35-day government in 2017.
It is not known whether Biden will take Trump’s position in the Supreme Court. The government’s brief is due on February 11.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador praised Biden’s decision to stop building walls but, in defense of Trump, noted that US presidents, dating back to the 1990s, had built border barriers. He displayed a graph to prove his point.
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Associated Press editors Nomaan Merchant in Houston, Anita Snow in Phoenix, and Christopher Sherman in Mexico City contributed.
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This story has been corrected to show that border wall contractor SLSCO Ltd. says another company is doing the work at Friendship Park in San Diego.
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