House GOP Seek to Restart Work on ‘Trump’ Border Wall

WASHINGTON — In a new bill, House Republicans are pushing for construction to resume on former President Donald Trump’s wall along the border between the United States and Mexico.

Introduced on Tuesday,  H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act of 2023, runs 213-pages and includes scores of measures the Republicans say are needed to close a border left wide open by the Biden administration and left to allegedly “fall into the hands of violent cartels.”

A synopsis of the bill’s content, in small type, runs 12 pages all by itself.

“The crisis at our Southern border is among the gravest threats to U.S. national security in our history,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., who co-sponsored the bill with Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., in a written statement.

“For the last two years, President Biden and his administration have entirely neglected the escalating crisis at our border, and their lack of action has ceded all control to narco-terrorist cartels, who are now among the most powerful in deciding who comes into our country and at what price,” Diaz-Balart said.

He described the act as an immigration reform package that will “provide real, thoughtful solutions to restore order at the Southwest border, enhance our national security, and most importantly, protect unaccompanied minors,” whom he says are being exploited and forced into performing “brutal and dangerous jobs,” in violation of U.S. child labor laws.

A summary of the bill from the office of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said the act will secure the border and combat illegal immigration by deploying technology to the southern — and northern border [with Canada]; increase the number of border patrol agents and provide them with bonus pay, strengthen current laws aimed at protecting unaccompanied children from human trafficking and strengthen and streamline the asylum process, among other measures.

But it is the border wall, Trump’s signature promise during the 2016 presidential campaign, that leads the bill.

After promising during the campaign that Mexico would pay for the wall, Trump appropriated roughly $14 billion for its construction, with much of the money being taken from the Defense Department’s budget after the then-Democratically controlled Congress refused to meet the president’s funding demands.

The standoff, as one may well remember, led to a lengthy government shutdown.

It has since been estimated that of the $14 billion total, about $9.9 billion came from the Pentagon budget in two funding tranches in fiscal years 2019 and 2020. 

Hours after taking office in January 2021, President Joe Biden signed an executive order immediately halting construction on the wall.

According to McCarthy, the order effectively resulted in the federal government paying contractors to “not build [the] wall, leaving over 150 miles of planned border wall left unbuilt, and materials left to rust in the desert.”

The Secure the Border Act would require the secretary of Homeland Security to resume “all activities related to the construction of the border wall between the United States and Mexico” within seven days of its enactment.

To carry this out, the act directs the secretary to “expend all unexpired funds appropriated or explicitly obligated for the construction of the border wall … beginning on Oct. 1, 2019.”

It also directs that “any unused materials purchased … for the construction of the border wall” during the Trump years “may be used for activities related to the [renewed] construction of the border wall.”

In addition, the act requires the secretary of Homeland Security to submit an implementation plan including annual benchmarks for the construction of 200 miles of the border wall as well as cost estimates associated with the work.

It also suggests that if the project were to move forward, “future funds” may be appropriated “or otherwise made available” by Congress.

The Well News reached out to the bill’s sponsors as well as the House Judiciary Committee, asking how much money they believe is left from the funds originally dedicated to the project; how much material is still waiting to be used and its location; and whether any of the associated contracts would have to be rebid.

A spokesperson for Rep. McClintock’s office referred The Well News to the House Committee on Homeland Security. None of the other queries received a response.

According to contemporaneous reports when the funding moves were made, the first tranche of about $3.6 billion was moved from military construction projects both in the U.S. and abroad.

The second, larger tranche of about $6.3 billion was moved from other defense projects, including those originally dedicated to several high-profile weapons systems.

That second tranche was routed to the border wall project through a Defense Department counterdrug account which allowed it to be spent by any federal agency deemed to be part of the nation’s war on drugs.

However, because they were then considered counterdrug funds, they had to be spent within one year’s time, a deadline that has long since lapsed, making them unavailable for the project now.

In June 2021, the Biden administration announced it was returning about $2.2 billion to the Defense Department so that it could pay for 66 previously deferred defense projects including a school for military family children in Germany.

As for what materials may have been “left to rust in the desert,” to use McCarthy’s phrase, much of the wall built by Trump consists of 18- to 30-foot steel bollards anchored in concrete. 

The new wall sections also featured sensors, lights and cameras.

The Well News also reached out to the White House seeking a statement on the Secure the Border Act and the border wall specifically, but also received no response.

In a second joint statement, McCarthy, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., reiterated that their action was necessary because “President Biden created an unprecedented crisis at our borders.”

“For over two years, President Biden and Congressional Democrats have ignored the crisis they created while House Republicans have been hard at work listening, especially to Americans and communities affected, and crafting solutions, as promised in our Commitment to America,” the leadership quartet said. 

“H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, fulfills our promise to the American people to deliver solutions to a crisis that affects not just cities and states along the border — but every city and state across the country. With Title 42 ending on May 11, and a surge of illegal immigration already occurring, we cannot afford to be blind to the truth, as the Biden administration has been for over two years. Our border is not secure and we must act,” they said.

Title 42 — a policy adopted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic allows for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the border and blocks them from seeking asylum — is set to expire May 11.

All this came amidst word the Biden administration is planning to temporarily deploy 1,500 active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border ahead of an expected surge in migrants. These troops will join the 2,500 sent in July of 2022.

Department of Homeland Security officials expect attempts to cross into the U.S. from Mexico will increase once Title 42 expires.

The troops are reportedly going to be deployed for 90 days, assisting in a variety of tasks, but not getting involved in any kind of law enforcement work.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and at https://twitter.com/DanMcCue