The Biden administration said it will also remedy flooding and soil erosion caused by unfinished sections of the wall.
The Pentagon said on Friday it was canceling construction of parts of former President Donald Trump border wall with Mexico which were built using military funds with unused money returned to the military.
Trump said a national emergency in 2019 for the purpose of redirecting funds to build a wall along the southern border of the United States.
President Joe Biden issued a proclamation on January 20, his first day in office, ordering a freeze on border wall plans and leading a review of the legality of his funding and contracting methods.
The Department of Defense is canceling all border fence construction projects funded with funds originally intended for other military missions and functions, such as military children’s schools, military construction projects to the alien in partner countries and the National Guard and Reserve account, ”Pentagon spokesman Jamal Brown said in a statement.
Brown said the returned funds would be used for deferred military construction projects.
As of Jan. 15, the government had spent $ 6.1 billion of the $ 10.8 billion in work it had contracted, a Senate Democratic aide with knowledge of the contracts and speaking to the Associated Press told The Associated Press. on condition of anonymity.
Publicly, the Trump administration has said it got $ 15 billion for the wall. The Senate aide said it was actually $ 16.45 billion, of which $ 5.8 billion was allocated by Congress and the rest diverted of the Defense and Treasury Departments.
Trump’s embezzlement Pentagon had been heavily criticized by lawmakers, who said it endangered national security and bypassed Congress.
Construction of a border wall near farmland in Progreso, Texas [File: Julio Cortez/AP Photo]
In 2019 alone, the military said more than 120 U.S. military construction projects would be affected by Trump’s decision.
The Biden administration also said on Friday it would start tackling risks of flooding and soil erosion from unfinished sections of the wall.
The construction “cut big holes” in the flood barrier system in low-lying areas of the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, the Department of Homeland Security said. He said he would “quickly fix” the flood barrier system without extending the wall.
Officials in Hidalgo County, Texas have expressed concern about the risk of flooding during the hurricane season starting in June due to breaches in a dike system.
The department said it would also correct “inappropriate compaction of soil and construction materials” along portions of a 22.4 km (14 mile) barrier in San Diego and would soon unveil plans to address ” additional damage caused by the construction of the border wall. Much of the San Diego Wall is in unpopulated expanses in areas reserved for border patrol officers.
