Biden to build Trump's border wall in California
President Biden will complete construction on a section of Trump's border wall that separates San Diego, California from Tijuana, Mexico.
Local news reported on July 5 that the wall will go up at "the westernmost edge of the US-Mexico border" at a binational location known as Friendship Park "where families can see and talk to each other through the fence, despite standing on land in two separate nations."
According to the Daily Mail, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas approved the project which will replace existing barriers on the border with two 30-foot doorless walls.
The plans, originally part of the Trump administration's Fiscal Year 2018 budget, will effectively close Friendship Park on the American side.
"Joe Biden should not be putting the finishing touches on Donald Trump's border wall at Friendship Park," said John Fanestil, convener of the Friends of Friendship Park coalition in San Diego.
Biden has discreetly completed sections of the border wall before, such as in May 2021 with a 13.4 mile stretch of the wall in the Rio Grande Valley. In those cases Biden categorizes the construction as simple maintenance to replace existing walls.
When Biden first took office he signed an executive order canceling all construction of the border wall. The Government Accountability Office launched a review to determine if Biden broke the law by freezing the money that was set to go to companies tasked with completing the wall.
$2 billion in funds originally set aside for wall construction was redistributed elsewhere and, by April, border wall construction material sat idle as migrants penetrated the gaps. By May 2021 illegal immigration hit a historic 21-year high.
Biden's border crisis escalated and a year later in May 2022, the country saw another record-breaking number of illegal immigrants crossing the border. The 2022 fiscal year is setting out to be another record year, with southwest land border encounters quickly approaching last year's total, despite still having months to go before the next fiscal year begins in October.
In June, 46 migrants were found dead inside an 18 wheeler in a human trafficking incident along the border. That death toll has since risen to 53, according to The Guardian.
- Source : Joshua Young
