The administration of the outgoing President Donald Trump accelerated the construction of the wall on the California border before his term ends, confirmed sources who see the president’s visit to the border on Tuesday as a political distraction, to ward off the attention to the attempted self-coup last week.
Trump comes today Tuesday to show himself next to the border wall, in a strategy of “drowning kicks,” the director told Real America News from the border project of the American Friends Services Committee, Pedro Ríos.
“It is a message for his followers; he wants to tell them that ‘mission accomplished’ by having built 450 miles of border wall, and at the same time he wants them to understand that things are going normally, even if they are about to initiate a trial political ”for instigating violence, Ríos said.
But the local leader of the border also questioned the veracity of the Trump administration building 450 miles of border wall from 2017, as officially stated by Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Some 390 miles were replacements of the old wall from the nineties, in other areas the barrier with obstacles in the form of dikes was replaced, and walls parallel to the one on the border were also erected, all with a maintenance budget approved before until Trump reached the White House.
Until last week the Trump administration had effectively built 57 miles on various stretches of the border. To that end, he has accelerated construction in recent weeks.
Daniel Watman, a border pacifist, has documented construction progress and knows in detail how the Trump administration expedited construction in the limits of San Diego with Mexico.
“It started about a month ago”, said Watman, “there were about five different points of the border east of San Diego where teams were moving, first in one place and then another, but about four or five weeks ago they started moving very fast and in all places at the same time. ”
Watman said that the speed of the works is due to the fact that the Trump administration understands that the incoming president, Joe Biden, will stop that construction and tries to advance as much as possible.
“There will be no other foot of wall construction in my administration ”, assured Biden in his electoral campaign.
Weeks later the Military Corps of Engineers Res released a study that estimates that the Biden administration would save at least $ 2, 600 million dollars if it suspends construction.
Although the budget that the Congress leaves approved this fiscal year to follow the wall is $ 1, 375 million dollars.
Warman said that a few days ago heavy equipment transported to the Friendship Park construction materials to also erect an additional wall of pillars of 30 feet high.
“The patrol The border authority confirmed to us that they are going to build that new wall in the Park, but we do not know if by doing so they will remove the Binational Garden, ”said Watman.
The Friendship Park, near where Mexico, California and the Pacific meet, has been since 1971 a meeting point for residents from both sides of the border and a place where families They come from both countries to see each other in person, separated by the wall, but access has been every ever reduced during the Trump administration.
Watman did not rule out that the construction of the wall in the Friendship Park would begin when Trump was in front of another section of the wall this morning.
Pedro Ríos said that “it is probable”, without ruling out the possibility, “right now he is going to try to attract attention as he can, away from the attempted self-coup; he is going to try to say that at least the wall did well, and his followers like his racist statements at the border very much. ”
The announcement of Trump’s visit to the border was made by Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan. The acting Secretary of Security, Chad Wolfe, who last week said that he will collaborate with the transition with the Biden administration, nor the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, who starts the legislature, will not accompany Trump.
It should be remembered that in Trump’s last visit to the Texas border, Senator Ted Cruz accompanied the outgoing president.
Morgan has praised for days on his Twitter account the extension of the wall that ensures that the Trump administration has built.
“The border wall system, as part of a multi-level security enforcement strategy, produces effective results. Anyone who says that the infrastructure is not effective is misinformed, wrong or has a hidden agenda and is wrong, “said Morgan.
He said it is” a historic achievement that stands out not only as a reminder promises kept, but rather our unwavering commitment to protect our national and economic security. ”