Border wall construction works stop, but activists call for a definitive cessation

After long years of struggle by environmental groups, the construction of the wall on the United States border with Mexico has stopped , At least for the moment. Now the activists hope that the works of a barrier that for many is a symbol of racism and division will cease definitively.

At the end of the term established by the executive order signed by President Joe Biden , environmental defenders toured sectors of the border in Arizona and Texas on Thursday and were able to verify that the construction of the barrier has stopped .

The noise generated by heavy machinery moving from one side to the other is no longer heard, the trucks transporting materials up and down are no longer visible, nor are the pipes of water that constantly reaches these sites.

“We and all our allies have been very aware and today we have not seen any movement in the sites where construction was carried out . There are no workers, construction is stopped, “said Tricia Cortez, executive director of the Rio Grande International Study Center in Laredo, Texas.

Cortez, who is also Co-founder of the Ni Un Pie Más coalition, indicated that this morning they visited several sites and were able to verify that there was no activity.

Last Wednesday, the newly inaugurated President Biden signed an order executive to suspend the construction of the border wall, giving construction companies a seven-day grace period to complete their operations. This period expired yesterday.

The order suspends the works for 60 days while the legality of the funds obtained by the Administration of former President Donald Trump to finance them is evaluated, especially the resources diverted from the Department of Defense for this purpose.

The Trump Administration allocated more than 15, 000 million dollars to the construction of the barrier. Until the beginning of this month and before Biden assumed the Presidency on 20 had been built 450 miles (720 kilometers) of border wall, one of the symbols of Trump’s administration.

The Caddell Construction company, which carries part of the construction on the Texas border, sent an email to all its employees notifying them that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had told them last Friday that they should suspend everything the work related to the project.

“This suspension includes administrative actions, design, construction or any other type of work related to the contract ”, said the construction company in the notification sent to its workers, of which Efe obtained a copy.

For its part , Laiken Jordahl, an environmental conservation expert at the Center for Biological Diversity, also did this morning a tour of the Arizona border. “The difference from the image of last week to today is incredible. A week ago we saw a intense and endless activity of trucks and workers; now, nothing ”, he said.

He indicated that he could only see a subcontractor apparently welding a piece on the existing wall, but nothing to indicate that construction is continuing.

Jordahl toured parts of Coronado National Park yesterday, where part of the construction was also taking place, and did not see any workers.

The silence of the desert that can now be seen on the border offers hope to the defenders

However, both Jordahl and Cortez know that the halt to the construction of the border wall for now is just a pause from 60 days. They hope that after this time this pause will become a permanent stop to the construction of a barrier that for many is a symbol of racism and division.

The fight will not be easy, as the Biden Administration has yet to evaluate and decide what will be done with the contracts approved by the Trump Administration for the construction of the wall. This legal fight can cost several billion dollars to revoke contracts with construction companies.

Environmentalists have also called on the Biden Administration not only for not to build “not one more foot” of the border wall , but also for sectors that affect the environment to be demolished.

Critics of President Biden’s order assure that halting construction will not only put safety at risk It will also put hundreds of workers out of work at the border.

By María León