John Darwin Kurc
All along the US-Mexico border, the machines are silent. On January 20, President Joe Biden gave workers seven days to wind down construction on President Donald Trump’s signature project, the border wall…That work has paused while the Biden administration reviews all contracts and the costs of “terminating or repurposing” them…
Toward the end of Trump’s term, contractors rushed to tackle arduous terrain, carving access roads and blasting staging areas into areas that campaigners said would never actually be completed…
Massive staging areas and rough access roads — built to service the vehicles and construction workers in what had been pristine wilderness — are empty or are parking lots for machinery…
Oh…here’s a completed segment of the wall…a leftover parking lot…and while the photographer set-up to take this drone shot, 4 migrants easily climbed over the wall and proceeded on their way into the U.S. along the road thoughtfully provided by Trump.
Eideard 
‘Witnesses of history’: the man who kept slabs of the Berlin Wall https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/08/witnesses-of-history-the-man-who-kept-slabs-of-the-berlin-wall Scroll down for related stories
As of December 9, 2020: “Trump Spent $15 Billion On Border Wall But Skimped On Vaccines” (Forbes) https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2020/12/09/trump-spent-15-billion-on-border-wall-but-skimped-on-vaccines/?sh=56e37bd36a9d
President Biden informed Congress on Thursday that he has rescinded Trump’s 2019 national emergency declaration that redirected billions in order to fund construction of the former president’s beloved border wall with Mexico.
In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the president said Trump’s declaration was unnecessary and the taxpayer dollars it diverted will no longer be allocated to fund the wall. Biden also promised a review of “all resources appropriated or redirected” to building the wall.
“I have determined that the declaration of a national emergency at our southern border was unwarranted,” Biden wrote in the letter. “I have also announced that it shall be the policy of my Administration that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall, and that I am directing a careful review of all resources appropriated or redirected to that end.” https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/biden-ends-taxpayer-funding-trump-wall-1127149/
President Joe Biden is canceling further construction of the wall along the U.S. and Mexico border, the Department of Defense announced Friday.
“DoD has begun taking all necessary actions to cancel border barrier projects and to coordinate with interagency partners,” Pentagon spokesperson Jamal Brown said in a statement. “Today’s action reflects this Administration’s continued commitment to defending our nation and supporting our service members and their families.” https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/30/biden-terminates-border-wall-construction-485123
The United Nations UNESCO committee is calling on the Biden administration to work with Mexico to repair damage done to the Sonoran Desert where that country’s border meets with protected Arizona land.
UNESCO argues that at stake is Sonora Mexico’s El Pinacate, a massive biosphere preserve located just south of Arizona’s border that abuts Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge.
The resolution calls on the U.S. to stop building the border wall, which it has. And to work with Mexico to mitigate damage done to the biosphere because of it.
The resolution also argues that the border wall damages the historical migration routes of the Tohono O’odham tribe, whose members live on both sides of the border. https://fronterasdesk.org/content/1701886/un-committee-calls-us-help-fix-border-wall-damage-mexico
UNESCO’s call to end US border wall aims to save species from extinction
Trump administration’s construction has left flora and fauna in both countries in danger https://mexiconewsdaily.com/opinion/call-to-end-border-wall-aims-to-save-species/
Trump’s Border Wall Torn Apart by Arizona Monsoon Rains https://gizmodo.com/trumps-border-wall-torn-apart-by-arizona-monsoon-rains-1847535174
“It turns out ignoring bedrock environmental laws may not have been the best choice for a multibillion-dollar construction project. Photos show former President Donald Trump’s border wall in deep disrepair after summer monsoon rains literally blew floodgates off their hinges.
Who could have predicted this? Ah yes, just about everyone.” (see https://gizmodo.com/if-trump-wants-his-racist-border-wall-hell-have-to-sta-1841383594 )
The Washington Examiner reported a few months ago that House Republicans intends to “revive the now-stalled construction of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border” as a top 2022 campaign issue. https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/impenetrable-border-wall-damaged-monsoon-rains-arizona-n1277529
7AM MDT, tomorrow morning, 25th
(Oct 26, 2021): Five firms being considered for design and construction of Texas-Mexico border wall that Gov. Greg Abbott promised : One of the companies being considered previously built a 3-mile barrier that is at risk of falling into the Rio Grande. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/26/texas-mexico-border-wall-contract-greg-abbott/
(Nov 1, 2021): Greg Abbott Is Wasting Billions in Taxpayer Money on Razor Wire and a New Wall Along the Southern Border – Meanwhile, Texas remains vulnerable to the same freezing temperatures that shut the state down last February https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/greg-abbott-taxpayer-money-southern-border-1251329/
(Nov 3): Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today joined Sens. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Mike Braun (R-Ind.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) in introducing the WALL Act to fully fund the wall along the southern border. https://www.kennedy.senate.gov/public/2021/11/kennedy-inhofe-colleagues-introduce-bill-to-fully-fund-border-wall
(Oct 21, 2021): Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration Thursday, seeking to resume construction of a wall along the southern border. https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article255173702.html
This week activists held a rally in support of an Indigenous protester facing federal charges over blocking border wall construction last year. The incident took place near Quitobaquito Springs, a sacred freshwater source at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.
It’s been more than a year since Amber Ortega was arrested for physically blocking machinery near Quitobaquito. https://fronterasdesk.org/content/1735913/border-wall-protester-and-supporters-rally-religious-freedom-defense-denied
Ortega was in court facing misdemeanor charges including interfering with an agency function and violating a closure order earlier this month, and testified that her religious beliefs and culture as a Hia C-ed O’odham woman compelled her to defend the spring that day, and her actions should be protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. But weeks later, the judge ruled that her religious beliefs could not be used to determine her guilt or innocence.
Federal Magistrate Judge Leslie Bowman is expected to issue a final verdict by Dec. 15.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been authorized to start cleaning up construction sites and close small gaps in the southern border wall nearly a year after President Joe Biden took office and ordered building to stop.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement this week that wall building projects begun by the Defense Department within the Border Patrol’s sectors in California, Arizona and parts of Texas will be turned over to his agency so any safety and environmental concerns can be addressed.
It was unclear when cleanup and any remediation work will begin. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/joe-biden-alejandro-mayorkas-phoenix-donald-trump-work-b1981015.html
GUADALUPE CANYON, Ariz. — The demolition crews kept right on blasting through the Peloncillo Mountains long after Donald Trump lost the election, a result that doomed their contracts. They carved steep roads at dizzying angles and gouged a wide path through the ridgeline where the border wall would go.
The clock ran out before they built it, leaving behind a mutilated landscape and a boneyard of steel fence panels stacked by the hundreds.
At more than $41 million per mile, Guadalupe Canyon was the most expensive segment of a $15 billion megaproject that ranked among the costliest in U.S. history. Today the abandoned border wall site is a liability for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, with loose rocks and boulders sliding down the mountainsides.
Sage Goodwin, whose family’s nearby ranch house rattled daily through nine months of blasting in 2020, wants the government to repair the damage to their land. He filed suit against the Trump administration and is now waiting for CBP to indicate how far it’s willing to go to put the mountain back together and prevent a flood that could wash out the road to his home. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/02/19/trump-biden-border-wall/ (see photos)
Trump obtained roughly $15 billion for the wall project, two-thirds of which came from diverted military and counternarcotics funding. The Biden administration said it will return $2.2 billion in unused funds to the Pentagon.
The Department of Homeland Security said about half of the $5 billion the Trump administration obtained for the wall through Congress and nonmilitary sources was awarded to contractors, and the department is still calculating how much of the money can be recovered. New contracts for Biden’s remediation projects will be awarded in April, DHS said, with a second round of awards planned for late summer.
The Panama Canal was completed in 1914 and cost $375 million to construct. This would be over $8 billion in today’s dollars.