SAN DIEGO (AP) – Before Joe Biden became president, construction teams quickly worked to finish Donald Trump’s wall in an iconic cross-border park overlooking the Pacific Ocean, which then First Lady Pat Nixon opened in 1971 as a symbol of international friendship.
Biden on Wednesday ordered a “pause” in the construction of all walls within a week, one of 17 executive orders issued on his first day in office, including six dealing with immigration.
The order leaves billions of dollars of unfinished work – but still under contract – after Trump worked feverishly last year to build more than 450 miles (720 kilometers), a goal he said he achieved eight days before leaving office.
On January 15, the government spent $ 6.1 billion of the $ 10.8 billion on works it signed contracts to carry out, according to a Senate Democratic aide with knowledge of the contracts he spoke on condition of anonymity because the details have not been released. The total amount under contract would have extended Trump’s wall to 664 miles (1,069 kilometers).
Biden, seeking to fulfill his promise not to build “another foot,” gave his government two months to determine how much it would cost to cancel the contracts and whether the money could be spent elsewhere. The Senate aide said the fees would be negotiated with the contractors and that the government would try to spend what is left on related uses at the border, such as roads, lights, sensors and other technologies.
Publicly, the Trump administration said it has secured $ 15 billion for the wall. The Senate aide said it was actually $ 16.45 billion on Wednesday, $ 5.8 billion of which was appropriated by Congress and the rest diverted from the Defense and Treasury departments.
The Trump administration notified the Senate aide on January 14 that it was moving forward with a $ 863 million contract, but it has not been signed.
The Army Corps of Engineers, which awarded wall contracts with Defense Department money, said on Thursday that it told crews not to install additional barriers and to limit activity in the coming days to what is “necessary to safely prepare each place for a suspension of work. “
John Kurc, an activist who posts videos of dynamite explosions by wall-building crews, said he saw a dynamite load being set on Wednesday afternoon in Guadalupe Canyon, in the far east of Arizona, even when the inauguration was taking place. in Washington.
Heavy machinery has been crawling over dug roads in rocky mountain slopes, opening holes for posts on the US Bureau of Land Management property.
Defenders of the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, the busiest area for illegal crossings, and near Nogales, Arizona, saw construction equipment inactive on Thursday.
But in San Diego, teams were replacing a steel fence with imposing posts spaced with 9-meter steel plates, said Dan Watman of Friends of Friendship Park, a group that promotes public access to the cross. frontier park overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
The contractors started last week, said Watman, who was briefed on the project in a December conference call with Border Patrol agents, but could not explain why. The agency referred the questions to the White House, which did not immediately 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 barriers it has replaced, it is not uncommon for smugglers to guide people through it or through it. Portions can be sawn with power tools sold at building supply stores.
Despite Trump’s bravado, Border Patrol officials said the goal of the wall was never to stop everyone, but to slow their progress.
Jose Edgar Zuleta, whose religious jewelry business in the Mexican city of Puebla dried up during the coronavirus pandemic, cleaned two walls at Parque da Amizade in October with a special ladder. He moved through the bushes in a heavily patrolled area for about half an hour before being caught. His 21-year-old son, who was in front of him, was caught hours later.
The cross-border park has hosted yoga classes, concerts and numerous press conferences, including one in 2018 with then-attorney general Jeff Sessions to announce a “zero tolerance” policy that has caused thousands of children to be separated from their parents in the border.
An old bullring and restaurants overlooking the sea surround the Mexican side; The wetland scrub extends to the United States.
Years ago, people passed baked goods, kissed and shook hands through a wire fence. Watman remembers shifting tools back and forth in 2007 to plant a cross-border garden that is still standing.
Since 2012, after the construction of a double wall in the park, the Border Patrol has opened a gate on many weekends for up to 10 people at a time to exchange words with those in Mexico.
SLSCO Ltd. of Galveston, Texas, has won contracts to build double walls covering 14 miles (22 kilometers) in San Diego. Company spokeswoman Liz Rogers said the work at Friendship Park is separate and done by another company.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments next month over whether the government illegally embezzled billions of dollars from the Department of Defense to build the wall after Congress denied the money Trump was seeking, causing a 35-day government shutdown in 2017.
It is unclear whether Biden will adopt Trump’s position before the Supreme Court. The government document expires on February 11.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador welcomed Biden’s decision to halt the construction of the walls, but, in Trump’s defense, noted that U.S. presidents, since the 1990s, have built barriers at the border. He displayed a graph to prove his point.
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Associated Press writers 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 border wall contractor SLSCO Ltd. says another company is doing work at Friendship Park in San Diego.