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Border wall construction efforts will come to a pause at the end of Tuesday. So far, this order has been for US Customs and Border Protection constructions. The Department of Defense and US Army Corps of Engineers might issue similar orders.<\/p>\n
From the Washington Examiner:<\/span><\/p>\n “The proclamation directs an immediate pause in wall construction projects to allow a close review of the legality of the funding and contracting methods used, and to determine the best way to redirect funds that were diverted by the prior Administration to fund wall construction,” the White House executive order stated.<\/p>\n More than 450 miles have been installed since former President Donald Trump took office in January 2017. Seven hundred and thirty-eight miles have been funded for $15.5 billion, including $10 billion diverted from the Treasury and Pentagon. The 450 miles installed to date are in place of old fencing and in new areas. Only approximately one-third of the 738 miles will go in previously unsecured areas of the border, though all the new barriers are far superior to the flimsy, short fences that they replaced.<\/p>\n Border wall projects have been undertaken in all four states that span the 2,000-mile border with Mexico. No projects were started on the Canadian border because illegal crossings are rare.<\/p>\n While Biden is stopping wall construction following an outcry from his party during the Trump administration, government-funded border wall construction is nothing new. Projects took off in the 1990s, when former President Bill Clinton approved a Border Patrol hiring surge and infrastructure package.<\/p>\n A decade later, during the George W. Bush administration, Congress approved the Secure Fence Act, which funded more than 650 miles of barrier. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi voted in support for the bill. Half of the 650 miles of barrier funded in the legislation were short fences just tall enough to block vehicles from driving across rural parts of the border, while the other half was tall enough to prevent people from illegally walking over. Border wall projects continued, albeit at far slower rates, under the Obama administration.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Washington Examiner has the story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"