On January 25th, 2017 then-President Trump signed Executive Order 13767, entitled Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements. Delivering on a campaign promise, Trump called for wall construction along the southern border.
“It is the policy of the Executive Branch to secure the southern border of the United States through the immediate construction of a physical wall on the southern border, monitored and supported by adequate personnel so as to prevent illegal immigration, drug and human trafficking, and acts of terrorism,” the order read.
Just four years later, a different policy position takes root in the Oval Office and President Biden signs an executive order of his own, ending the construction of Trump’s wall.
The order was titled the Proclamation on the Termination Of Emergency With Respect To The Southern Border Of The United States And Redirection Of Funds Diverted To Border Wall Construction.
But here’s an interesting section from that order…
“Pause immediately the obligation of funds related to construction of the southern border wall, to the extent permitted by law.”
But while Mr. Biden paused funds towards the wall’s construction, it turns out American taxpayers are still funding the maintenance of the materials for a wall that was never built.
Biden’s DOD is paying $130,000 a day —$50 million a year —NOT to build a wall. GOP lawmakers are, understandably, furious that the Biden Administration is paying millions of dollars just to keep Americans less safe.
Republican members of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, led by ranking member Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), and Texas Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, sent a letter on Wednesday to the Defense Department asking why we’re paying millions to store, and not use, wall materials.
“At present, over 20,000 border wall sections, otherwise known as bollard panels, lie unused at 20 project sites across southern Arizona and New Mexico,” the senators said in the letter addressed to Melissa Dalton, the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and hemispheric affairs. “Every day, the Department of Defense pays $130,000 to store, maintain, and secure these materials. Since you were sworn in as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs a year ago, you have allowed the Department to pay over $47 million to store these panels. The Department of Defense should not be incurring these daily charges but should be using these funds to bolster national security.”
“This failing program clearly misses that standard,” the senators added.
“It is astounding to me that the Department of Defense is paying $130,000 per day to do nothing with $300 million worth of border wall materials,” Wicker told Fox News Digital. “This clear example of government waste is holding back our mission to protect American citizens and American security. President Biden appears to prefer spending money to avoid building the wall, rather than protect Americans from cartels.”
Biden’s border is burning —and there’s nothing more incompetent than paying —wasting —millions of dollars to keep Americans less safe.