SAN DIEGO (AP) – In the days before Joe Biden became president, construction crews worked quickly to finish Donald Trump’s wall in an iconic cross-border park overlooking the Pacific Ocean, which then-first lady Pat Nixon dedicated in 1971 as a symbol of international friendship.
Biden ordered a “break” on all wall structures within a week on Wednesday, one of 17 executive orders issued in office on its first day, including six related to immigration.
The order leaves billions of dollars in work unfinished – but still under contract – after Trump worked feverishly last year to build more than 450 miles (720 kilometers), a goal he achieved eight days before leaving office.
On January 15, the government spent $ 6.1 billion of the $ 10.8 billion on work for which it signed contracts, according to a Senate Democratic aide who was aware of the contracts speaking on condition of anonymity because details were not have been made public. The full contract amount would have expanded Trump’s wall to 664 miles (1069 kilometers).
Biden, trying to keep a promise not to build an “ other foot, ” gave his administration two months to determine how much it would cost to terminate contracts and whether the money could be spent elsewhere. The Senate assistant said the fees would be negotiated with contractors and the administration would try to spend whatever is left on related uses at the border, such as roads, lights, sensors and other technology.
Publicly, the Trump administration said it had secured $ 15 billion for the wall. The Senate aide said it was $ 16.45 billion as of Wednesday, $ 5.8 billion of which was appropriated by Congress and the remainder diverted from the Defense and Finance Departments.
The Trump administration informed the Senate aide on Jan. 14 that it would book an $ 863 million contract, but it was not awarded.
The Army Corps of Engineers, which has awarded wall contracts with Department of Defense money, said on Thursday it had told crew not to install additional barriers and to limit activity for the next few days to what is needed to safely prepare each site on suspension. of work.”
John Kurc, an activist who posts videos of dynamite blasts by wall construction crews, said he saw a dynamite attack take place in Guadalupe Canyon in eastern Arizona on Wednesday afternoon, even as the inauguration took place in Washington.
Heavy machinery is crawling along roads cut into rocky mountain slopes and drilled holes for posts in the US Bureau of Land Management property.
Lawyers in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, the busiest area for illegal crossings, and near Nogales, Arizona, saw inactive construction equipment Thursday.
But in San Diego, crews were replacing a steel fence with imposing, tightly spaced posts topped with 30-foot-high flat steel plates, said Dan Watman of Friends of Friendship Park, a group that promotes public access to the cross. promotes. border park overlooking the Pacific.
Contractors started work last week, said Watman, who was aware of the project during a December conference call with agents from border security but received no explanation. The agency referred questions to the White House, which had no immediate comments.
Trump said the border wall would be “virtually impenetrable” and paid for by Mexico, which never happened. While the wall is much more formidable than the barriers it replaced, it is not uncommon for smugglers to lead people over or through it. Parts can be cut with power tools sold in hardware stores.
Despite Trump’s bravado, border guards have said the wall was never intended to stop everyone, but to slow their advance.
Jose Edgar Zuleta, whose religious jewelry business dried up in the Mexican city of Puebla during the coronavirus pandemic, cleaned two walls in Friendship Park in October with a special ladder. He moved through undergrowth in a heavily guarded area for about half an hour before being caught. His 21-year-old son, who preceded him, was picked up hours later.
The cross-border park has hosted yoga classes, concerts and numerous news conferences, including one in 2018 with then Attorney General Jeff Sessions to announce a “zero tolerance” policy that caused thousands of children to be separated from their parents at the border.
An old bullfighting arena and restaurants with ocean views surround the Mexican side; wetland scrub extends into the United States.
Years ago, people passed baked goods, kissed, and shook hands through a chain-link fence. Watman recalls that in 2007 tools were passed back and forth to create a cross-border garden that still stands.
Since 2012, after the construction of a double wall in the park, the Border Patrol has opened a gate for up to 10 people at a time many weekends to exchange words with those in Mexico.
SLSCO Ltd. of Galveston, Texas, has won contracts to build double walls covering 14 miles in San Diego. Company spokeswoman Liz Rogers said the work at Friendship Park is separate and done by another company.
The Supreme Court will hear arguments next month as to whether the government “ illegally diverted billions of dollars from the Defense Department to build the wall after Congress denied the money Trump was seeking, leading to a 35-day shutdown of the Defense Department. government in 2017.
It’s unclear whether Biden will take Trump’s position in the Supreme Court. The government’s order comes on February 11.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador welcomed Biden’s decision to halt construction of walls, but noted in Trump’s defense that US presidents have been building border barriers dating back to the 1990s. He showed a map to prove his point.
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Associated Press Noman 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 the work at Friendship Park in San Diego.