Trump Goes Back to Building His Southern Border Wall…

With President Biden gone….

Donald Trump resurrects his effort to get ‘HIS’ Wall….

Even if it huts the locals?

Nevermind that the Southern Border crossing have dropped DRAMATICLY….

 

For as long as the federal government has talked about a border wall, people in Laredo have opposed it. They’ve called it an “ugly monstrosity” that would trample over residents’ property and damage ties to Mexico, a critical trading partner with a shared history.

But the wall is coming “regardless of whether it works or not,” the mayor said in an interview. He added, “we might as well collaborate, or negotiate.”

In Mr. Trump’s first term, the border wall came to symbolize the president’s desire to address illegal immigration. But in the face of a stingy Congress and a barrage of lawsuits from landowners and environmental groups, his administration built about 453 miles of border wall, far short of the nearly 2,000 miles once promised. Then, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. largely halted construction.

During Mr. Trump’s second term, unauthorized border crossings have plunged, and federal immigration policies have shifted to interior enforcement and mass deportations. To the public, the wall has almost been forgotten

Mr. Trump has not forgotten.

In July, Congress approved $46.5 billion for the border wall as part of the president’s signature domestic budget and spending law, a staggering increase from the $5 billion that Mr. Trump requested in 2018. Ten construction contracts, totaling $4.5 billion, were awarded in September for sections of the barrier outside of Laredo. In October, Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, waivedfederal procurement laws across the entire U.S.-Mexico border in order to assign construction contracts more swiftly….

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City leaders say they are not sure what standing firm will get them with an administration that has been more than willing to play hard ball. During the government shutdown, thousands of Laredo children and older residents lost food assistance as Mr. Trump moved to punish Democrats for demanding an extension of expanded health insurance subsidies as the price for funding the government. Democrats relented.

Mayor Treviño worried that if Laredo refuses to cooperate, the Department of Justice will acquire the city’s land through eminent domain….

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