Trump has not built a single mile of new border fence after 30 months in office

[GMDino]

On the same day as his acting CBP commissioner confirmed that no new border wall has been built on areas that didn't already have a border barrier, Trump claims "we are building the wall faster than anybody thought possible." pic.twitter.com/vW7uab8RQM

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 15, 2019

 

Here's acting CBP commissioner Mark Morgan reluctantly admitting today that in fact no new border wall has been constructed on stretches that did not already have a border barrier pic.twitter.com/hyNlkke2KS

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 15, 2019

 

[Vas Deferens]

Under funding special needs education has worked out well. Thanks Obama.

[GMDino]

What could POSSIBLY go wrong when I renowned cheat who loves cutting corners and taking kickbacks gets rid of a bunch of regulations to build his glamor wall that he said Mexico was going to pay for?

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/homeland-security-waives-contracting-laws-for-border-wall

Quote:Homeland Security waives contracting laws for border wall


Nation Feb 18, 2020 9:24 AM EST

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Trump administration said Tuesday that it will waive federal contracting laws to speed construction of a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Department of Homeland Security said waiving procurement regulations will allow 177 miles (283 kilometers) of wall to be built more quickly in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The 10 waived laws include requirements for having open competition, justifying selections and receiving all bonding from a contractor before any work can begin.

The acting Homeland Security secretary, Chad Wolf, is exercising authority under a 2005 law that gives him sweeping powers to waive laws for building border barriers.

“We hope that will accelerate some of the construction that’s going along the Southwest border,” Wolf told Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday.

Secretaries under President Donald Trump have issued 16 waivers, and President George W. Bush issued five, but Tuesday’s announcement marks the first time that waivers have applied to federal procurement rules. Previously they were used to waive environmental impact reviews.

The Trump administration said it expects the waivers will allow 94 miles (150 kilometers) of wall to be built this year, bringing the Republican president closer to his pledge of about 450 miles (720 kilometers) since taking office and making it one of his top domestic priorities. It said the other 83 miles (133 kilometers) covered by the waivers may get built this year.

WATCH: Trump calls new border wall a ‘world-class security system’

“Under the president’s leadership, we are building more wall, faster than ever before,” the department said in a statement.

The move is expected to spark criticism that the Trump administration is overstepping its authority, but legal challenges have failed. In 2018, a federal judge in San Diego rejected arguments by California and environmental advocacy groups that the secretary’s broad powers should have an expiration date. An appeals court upheld the ruling last year.

Congress gave the secretary power to waive laws in areas of high illegal crossings in 2005 in a package of emergency spending for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and minimum standards for state-issued identification cards. The Senate approved it unanimously, with support from Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The House passed it with strong bipartisan support; then-Rep. Bernie Sanders voted against it.

The waivers, to be published in the Federal Register, apply to projects that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will award in six of nine Border Patrol sectors on the Mexican border: San Diego and El Centro in California; Yuma and Tucson in Arizona; El Paso, which spans New Mexico and west Texas, and Del Rio, Texas.

The administration said the waivers will apply to contractors that have already been vetted. In May, the Army Corps named 12 companies to compete for Pentagon-funded contracts.

The Army Corps is tasked with awarding $6.1 billion that the Department of Defense transferred for wall construction last year after Congress gave Trump only a fraction of the money. The administration has been able to spend that money during legal challenges.

[GMDino]

Where there IS existing wall...it doesn't work.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/border-patrol-discovers-new-smuggling-tunnel-in-southern-us/ar-BB10u8Eh?ocid=st2

Quote:Border Patrol discovers new smuggling tunnel in southern US


The illegal tunnel burrowed under the U.S.-Mexico border runs approximately 15-20 feet underground at its deepest point and extends approximately 30 feet from beginning to end, where the cartel left it incomplete.


Border Patrol agents in southern Arizona have uncovered another illegal tunnel running under the U.S.-Mexico border, the latest in a series of discoveries and the result of renewed efforts targeting underground smuggling routes.


The tunnel, according to Customs and Border Protection, ran about 30 feet into Nogales, Arizona. No arrests were immediately made in connection with the tunnel, a CBP official confirmed to ABC News.

It’s the third time since December that agents have thwarted a suspected underground smuggling route in the area, according to Border Patrol.

Similar tunnels used for drug trafficking have recently been found across the southern U.S. border as part of regularly coordinating investigations with Mexican authorities.


Tensions between the U.S. and Mexico have been heightened over the past year as Trump administration officials push for further cooperation to secure the southern border, including petitioning for more resources into the border wall.

Mexican government officials in early 2019 were reluctant to accept the administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the "Remain in Mexico" policy. The protocols have exposed tens of thousands of Central American asylum seekers to the dangers of Mexican-border towns while they await their immigration court hearings.

Despite the pushback, the Department of Homeland Security expanded the program across the southern border, while front-line Border Patrol agents face on-going security challenges. Those efforts require careful communication and long-standing ties with Mexico's military, according to multiple Border Patrol officials.

Last month, federal authorities in San Diego discovered the longest cross-border tunnel on record. It extended more than 14 football fields and included lighting fixtures, cabling and an elevator, according to CBP.

Customs officials have seen a spike in hard narcotics trafficking primarily of Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid linked to a rise in overdose deaths in recent years.

At the same time, Border Patrol seized far less marijuana in recent years, according to the latest CBP data. The reduction is a likely result of U.S. states legalizing medicinal and recreational cannabis use, an agency official said.

The tunnel discovered in Nogales this week was less sophisticated, allowing only enough space for one person to crawl through at a time, according to the official.

Arizona Border Patrol agents said the newly discovered was built in connection with an extensive sewage system that runs under Nogales’ sister city on the Mexican side of the border, making it more challenging to detect the illicit passage way.

After an investigation, authorities filled the passage with concrete.

[JustWinBaby]

(07-26-2019, 09:15 PM)BmorePat87 Wrote: SCOTUS has stayed the injunction preventing the Trump administration from reallocating $2.5b from the military to construct the wall.df

So weird....It's almost like there's a balance of power and equal branches and Trump isn't actually a dictator.