$1.375 Billion Delegated for Border Wall Construction In End-Of-Year Spending Package
Richard Moorhead
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The end-of-year spending package rammed through the Senate on Monday delegates $1.375 billion for construction of new border wall on the southern border. Democrats ultimately accepted a spending package that included the wall funds, knocking down a Republican attempt to secure $2 billion in wall funding in the omnibus.
The wall funding will ensure that total walling in the neighborhood of up to 600 miles will be constructed in near future. President Donald Trump ran in 2016 on the promise of building a “big, beautiful” wall on the border, making the proposal his signature campaign issue. More than 400 miles of wall have already been completed, with over 450 miles scheduled for completion by the end of the year.
It’s sometimes emphasized that the construction of walling during Donald Trump’s presidency is only replacing existing fencing, but that doesn’t tell the full story. Previous obsolete fencing only secured heavily compromised areas of the border from vehicular traffic, whereas the new border wall is approximately 30 feet tall in many areas and inaccessible to pedestrian groups of illegal migrants.
(New border wall completed in 2020 near Yuma, Arizona.)
Joe Biden has promised open borders activists to halt wall construction as President, but the wall construction allocated in the 2020 omnibus would be legally mandated whether he likes it or not.
A senior Customs and Border Patrol official described a potential cancellation of border wall construction as “disastrous,” citing agreements already made with engineering and construction companies.
It’s likely that new walling will prove essential to border security in a Biden presidency, with new “caravans” of Central American and Mexican migrants already traveling to the border with the hopes of receiving amnesty from a Biden government. Illegal immigration levels are closely tied to perception of US policy in Mexico and Central America, with drug and human smuggling organizations already assuring potential border crossers that they won’t face repercussions for infiltrating the border.
Follow me on Twitter @Wildman_AZ, and on Parler @Moorhead.
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