SAN DIEGO (AP) – In the days before Joe Biden became president, construction crews worked quickly to complete Donald Trump’s wall at an iconic transfrontier park overlooking the Pacific Ocean, inaugurated then-president Pat Nixon in 1971 as a symbol of international friendship.
Biden on Wednesday within a week ordered an “interruption” of all wall construction, one of the 17 executive orders he issued on his first day in office, including six dealing with immigration.
The order let billions of dollars work unfinished – but still under contract – after Trump worked feverishly last year to build more than 720 kilometers, a goal he said he achieved eight days before leaving office.
According to a Senate Democratic Assistant, from January 15, the government spent $ 6.1 billion of the $ 10.8 billion on work it had to do contracts, knowing of the contracts that spoke on condition of anonymity because details did not has not been announced. The full amount under contract would have extended Trump’s wall to 1,069 kilometers (664 miles).
Biden, who had a promise not to build another foot, gave his administration two months to determine how much it would cost to cancel contracts and whether money could be spent elsewhere. The Senate assistant said that fees would be negotiated with contractors and that the government would try to spend all that was left over on related uses at the border, such as roads, lights, sensors and other technology.
Publicly, the Trump administration has said it has secured $ 15 billion for the wall. The Senate assistant said on Wednesday it was $ 16.45 billion, of which $ 5.8 billion was approved by Congress and the rest of the Department of Defense and Treasury diverted.
The Trump administration notified Senate assistance on January 14 that it was continuing a $ 863 million contract, but it was not awarded.
The Army Corps of Engineers, which awarded wall contracts with money from the Department of Defense, said Thursday they had instructed crews not to put up any additional barriers and to limit activity over the next few days to what was needed to secure each site. prepare for a suspension. of work. ”
John Kurc, an activist who posts videos of the explosion of dynamite by wall construction teams, said he saw one charge of dynamite take place Wednesday afternoon in Guadalupe Gorge in eastern Arizona, even as the inauguration took place in Washington.
Heavy machinery crawled across roads crammed into rocky mountain slopes, opening holes for jobs at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
Lawyers in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, the busiest area for illegal intersections, and near Nogales, Arizona, saw empty construction equipment on Thursday.
But in San Diego, crew members were replacing a steel fence with imposing poles with a solid distance, covered with flat steel plates that rise 9 feet, says Dan Watman of Friends of Friendship Park, a group that gives the public access to the cross promoted. border park overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Contractors started last week, Watman said, who was briefed on the project during a conference with border patrol agents in December but received no explanation for it. The agency referred questions to the White House, which made no immediate comment.
Trump said the border wall would be “virtually impenetrable” and paid for by Mexico, which never happened. Although the wall is much more formidable than the obstacles that replaced it, it is not uncommon for smugglers to lead people over it. Portions can be sawn with power tools sold at home improvement stores.
Despite Trump’s bravado, border patrol officials said the wall was never meant to stop everyone, but rather to slow down their march.
Jose Edgar Zuleta, whose business dried up religious jewelry in the Mexican city of Puebla during the coronavirus pandemic, cleaned two walls in Friendship Park with a special ladder in October. He moved through a brush in a heavy patrol area for about half an hour before being caught. His 21-year-old son, who preceded him, was picked up hours later.
The Transfrontier Park hosted yoga classes, concerts and numerous news conferences, including one in 2018 with Jeff Sessions, then Attorney General, to announce a ‘zero tolerance’ policy that caused thousands of their parents’ children to cross the border divorced.
An old bullfight and restaurants with a sea view surround the Mexican side; wetland scrub extends into the United States.
Years ago, people passed by bakkies, kissed and shook hands through a chain fence. Watman recalls that in 2007 he managed tools back and forth to plant a garden that still stands.
Since 2012, after building a double wall in the park, the Border Patrol has opened a gate on many weekends for up to ten people at a time to exchange words with those in Mexico.
SLSCO Ltd. of Galveston, Texas, was awarded contracts to cover double walls that were 22 miles in San Diego. Liz Rogers, company spokeswoman, said work at Friendship Park is separate and done by another company.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments next month on whether the government illegally diverted billions of dollars from the Department of Defense to build the wall after Congress denied money Trump sought, causing a 35-day closure in 2017 .
It is unclear whether Biden will take Trump’s position before the Supreme Court. The government’s mandate is due to appear on 11 February.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador welcomes Biden’s decision to halt wall construction, but in defense of Trump, he notes that U.S. presidents dating back to the 1990s have built border barriers. He displayed a graph to prove his point.
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Associated Press authors Nomaan Merchant in Houston, Anita Snow in Phoenix and Christopher Sherman in Mexico City contributed.
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This story has been corrected to show that the boundary wall contractor SLSCO Ltd. says another company is doing the work in Friendship Park in San Diego.