Biden Closing Gaps in Trump Border Wall

Despite President Joe Biden’s campaign against the idea of a border wall, his administration is filling in small gaps along the southern wall, the Washington Examiner reported.

Workers are halfway through filling in 129 gaps in border wall projects, the Examiner said. Gaps have been filled in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas, where more than 450 miles of 18-and 30-foot steel wall was put up by former President Donald Trump’s administration.

But despite such efforts, much of the 2,000-mile boundary is wide open.

According to the Examiner the work to fill in the gaps has been done without any fanfare.

When Biden took office, he immediately signed an executive order halting all border wall construction, but his administration has approved projects at multiple locations along the border, the Daily Mail reported in July, 2022.

“To date, DHS [Department of Homeland Security] has authorized the completion of multiple life, safety, environmental and other remediation activities which include, among other activities, the closure of 129 gates and gaps across the southwest border,” CBP [Customs and Border Protection] said. “Of the 129 approved gates and gaps, 68 have been completed to date with an additional 50 anticipated for completion by Sept. 30, 2023. The remaining 11 are anticipated to be completed in fiscal year 2024.”

And Ken Oliver, director of Right on Immigration at the Texas Public Policy Foundation said: “There never was any legitimate justification for waiting nearly 2 1/2 years to get around to doing construction that should have never stopped and that should have been completed by now.

“It was a highly irresponsible and unlawful action by the Biden administration to halt construction of duly appropriated border-wall funding in the first place.”

The Examiner noted that filling in the gaps is being funded with leftover money from the Trump wall projects. The Biden administration has not disclosed how many miles the gap projects total.

One gap in Deming, New Mexico, was no wider than 20 feet, but had been left open for 2 1/2 years. It was finally closed up in the last two weeks, according to landowner and fourth-generation rancher Russell Johnson.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who visited the border city of Yuma in June, said the gaps are being closed.

“Significant progress has been made on construction for all the gaps, with two nearly finished and all four expected to be complete within two months,” a spokesperson for Kelly said in a statement to the Examiner. “This remains a priority for him, and he will continue pushing to have the construction finished as soon as possible.”

The news outlet pointed out that instead of installing the same type of dark steel slatted beams, CBP in Yuma constructed 30-foot-tall wire mesh panels in some of the gaps. The sections included doors that open to allow police to come and go.