The Trump administration has not installed a single mile of new wall in a previously fenceless part of the U.S.-Mexico border in the 30 months since President Trump assumed office, despite his campaign promise to construct a “big beautiful wall.”
In a statement last week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the federal agency overseeing border barrier construction, confirmed that all the fencing completed since Trump took office is "in place of dilapidated designs" because the existing fence was in need of replacement.
The agency said that it had built 51 miles of steel bollard fence with funding that was set aside during fiscal 2017 and 2018. But while the funding was meant both to replace outdated walls and to place barriers where there previously had been none, the government has only completed the replacement projects. The projects to secure areas with no fence are still in the works.
The 50 miles of completed replacement barrier is a 10-mile gain since early April. In Trump’s two and a half years in office, his administration has installed an average 1.7 miles of barrier per month, and none of it in areas that did not previously have some sort of barrier. A total 205 miles of new and replacement barrier has been funded in the two and a half years since Trump took office.
(The Examiner is considered a conservative publication....and I read elsewhere that Ann Coulter is throwing barbs I-1's way over the lack of progress on the wall....)
-------------------------------- When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
Posts: 38221 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010
The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to move forward with plans to build a wall along parts of the Mexican border while litigation over paying for it proceeds.
A trial judge had prohibited the administration from transferring $2.5 billion from the Pentagon’s budget to fund the effort, and an appeals court had refused to enter a stay while it considered the administration’s appeal.
The Supreme Court entered a stay, allowing construction to proceed while the litigation continues.
The court’s four more liberal justices dissented. One of them, Justice Stephen G. Breyer, wrote that he would have allowed preparatory work but not construction.
When Joe Biden takes office on Jan 20, 2020, this precedent will permit many things.
The president can move money from anywhere to anything he wants ...
All he has to do is construct a transparently stupid rationale. Military spending is the same as migrant prevention. Well, heck, climate change affects our security so we can transfer billions from ships and planes into subsidies for solar I guess. An unhealthy population is a security problem, so take billions more and pump it into medicaid and medicare funding. Congress? Who needs 'em. They just pass continuing resolutions that give the total size of the budget and the president gets to move money around as he sees fit.
Posts: 12759 | Location: Williamsburg, VA | Registered: 19 July 2005
