VILLAREAL: Obviously, you know, the decision that was made to build this border wall wasn't our decision. CBP is, quote, "legally required" to use money that Congress earmarked for Trump's border wall for its appropriated purpose. In a June press release, though, the agency acknowledged that there was money left on the table that it had to spend. CBP said in a statement to NPR that the earthen levee provided inadequate flood protection, and the new levee wall will address life, safety and environmental requirements. He believes the government's border levee wall is completely unnecessary. It actually did the work that it was supposed to do during one of our last hurricane events.īURNETT: That's County Commissioner Everardo Villareal, who represents this area. President Obama spent $19 million to build up the Hidalgo County levee to FEMA standards.ĮVERARDO VILLAREAL: I mean, we had a perfect levee. NICOL: They're basically using the excuse of levee repair as a loophole to continue building walls because the levees were all repaired in 2011 using American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money.īURNETT: That checks out. Excavators and bulldozers were tearing out undamaged levee that's only 10 years old. But my recent visit to the construction sites seems to confirm what critics are saying.
#MAKE A GRID IN WORD FOR MAC 2011 PATCH#
It's actually a levee wall to patch the original earthen levee that was damaged by Trump's wall contractors. Customs and Border Protection says this is not a continuation of Trump's border wall. The wall will be topped with steel bollards six feet tall. And the wall is completely useless both in terms of flood control and immigration enforcement.īURNETT: We're standing on a levee road one sweltering morning watching crews pour concrete into molds 18 feet tall. You know, people are losing their land for this wall. SCOTT NICOL: They should stop building walls here, too. Longtime anti-wall activist Scott Nicol thinks it's great the Biden administration halted construction elsewhere along the 2,000-mile border.
JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE: Here along the twisting Rio Grande, just south of McAllen, crews began building a new border wall this summer, and it continues apace. (SOUNDBITE OF CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT RATTLING) But new construction has begun on 13 miles of border wall in Hidalgo County, Texas, to the dismay of some locals. Since then, most of the barrier has been halted. On the day he took office in January, he signed a proclamation that paused construction of Donald Trump's border wall. President Biden has been criticized by people in both parties for his handling of the border.
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