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It’s been over three months since President Joe Biden took office. In the intervening time, conservatives have hardly been happy with the Democratic executive, taking issue with his proposals on everything from spending packages to stimulus checks. Notably, one of the biggest ways in which Biden differentiates himself from his predecessor is how he defines the situation at the country’s southern border.
Many outlets, including Fox News, have described the situation in detail. With the news that the notoriously tough-on-immigration Donald Trump was no longer in office, an influx of immigrants made their way to the US border with Mexico. Many of these immigrants are from South America, though some are from Central American and Mexico. The situation has been described as “unprecedented” by some Border Patrol agents.
This begs the question: what ever happened to the border wall, a defining promise of Trump’s presidential campaign?
Biden was adamant on the campaign trail that, if he won the presidency, he’d not allow another foot of border wall to be built. Shortly after he took office in January, this became a reality. Construction crews working along the border were ordered to pack up and head home.
According to a CNN report, there are vast stretches along the southern border that show the deserted remnants of construction. Tire marks in the dirt show where crews were just months ago, working at a frenetic pace to erect walls before the new administration called them off. The Trump Administration worked to erect over 450 miles of border fencing and walls. However, only 52 miles of the construction was new: the rest of the work was replacement fencing for what was already present at the border.
There are vast stretches of pristine, untouched wilderness in the region that marks the border between the US and Mexico. Indeed, many natural mountain ranges and remote regions are along the border. After all, the border was partly chosen to run through these areas because they are either remote, impassable, or both. In these cases, park rangers and environmentalists are calling on Biden’s administration to use the money remaining in the wall contract to repair the damage done to the environment by work crews.
In other areas, the ones more frequently traveled by smugglers and drug runners, some have called on Biden to use the remaining money in the contracts to finish erecting the new walls. Speaking to CNN’s reporters, Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez said “I just think it’s foolish to leave this project as it is. My understanding is that they’re going to continue in the near future, but that’s yet to be seen.”
In either case, many are in agreement that the Biden Administration shouldn’t simply abandon these work sites, leaving half-built walls and deep trenches all over the countryside. The question is, which is the more pressing priority: finishing walls, or repairing damage to the local ecology?
