Incoming U.S. President Joe Biden has ordered a "pause" on construction of Trump's failed border wall, and has ended the bogus national emergency declaration Trump signed to divert $10 billion in military funds. It is not clear that Biden will have the authority to block completion of 200+miles already funded by Congress.
"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," Biden's order states, without indicating how long the pause will last, reports the Washington Post:
The Trump administration completed 455 miles of new barriers along the Mexico boundary, an undertaking whose main achievement was the replacement of smaller, more permeable anti-vehicle barriers with imposing 30-foot-tall steel bars.
Many of the segments that remain unfinished are in South Texas, where much of the land where the government seeks to build is privately held along the Rio Grande's winding course.
The funding appropriated by Congress since 2018 is enough to pay for 298 miles of barrier, about 71 miles of which have been completed to date, according to the latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) figures.
That would potentially oblige the Biden administration to complete as much as 227 additional miles of border wall, unless the contract review determines a way to block or cancel those segments, according to officials involved with the project who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.
More: Biden orders a 'pause' on border wall construction, bringing crews to halt [washingtonpost.com]
