Joe Biden formally ends Donald Trump's declaration of a national emergency which he used to divert Pentagon cash to fund his border wall
Joe Biden officially ended on Thursday the 'national' emergency' put in place by Donald Trump during his administration to direct funds from the Pentagon to construction of his promised southern border wall.
Biden already ordered a pause on construction at the U.S.-Mexico border on his first day in office on January 20, making his end to the emergency declaration a formality.
The president sent a letter Thursday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi notifying Congress he had rescinded his predecessor's proclamation from February 2019.
In his letter, Biden said Trump's declaration was 'unwarranted' and that he had directed that 'no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall.'
He also ordered a review of all money spent on the project so far.
Trump used the emergency declaration as a way to immediately get massive amounts of funding – many billions, in fact – for construction from government money allocated for the Department of Defense.
Joe Biden officially ended this week Donald Trump's 'emergency order' declaration allowing funds to be diverted from the Pentagon to construct the southern border wall
On Day One, Biden ordered construction be paused and on Thursday sent a letter to Congress declaring 'no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall'
Donald Trump declared a 'national emergency' at the southern border claiming the wall would stop the flow of illegal immigration, crime and drug and sex trafficking along the U.S.-Mexico border
The former president claimed there was an emergency at the southern border due to drug and human trafficking, illegal crossings and violence.
The U.S. has been building border walls for decades under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
Trump made the effort a centerpiece of his first presidential campaign, vowing to build a wall across the entire southern border and somehow get Mexico to pay for it.
The former president, during his time in office, took roughly $6 billion from military funds under the national emergency he declared after Congress refused his demands for wall funding, leading to the longest government shutdown in history.
The Supreme Court upheld a legal challenge to Trump's action in a 5-4 vote in July 2019.
By the end of his administration, the U.S. had completed more than 450 miles of new wall construction along the 2,000-mile border. Much of the construction was in areas where there had already been some form of barrier previously.
Trump administration officials said the border wall slowed down smugglers and people crossing the border illegally so they could be more easily apprehended.
In one of his last days in office, Trump visited the border to celebrate 400 miles completed in his four years, and he signed a document hung on the U.S. side of a new section of wall
Critics, however, claim there were more effective tools for enforcement and insist parts of the new construction damaged environmentally sensitive areas or were in places where a wall wasn't needed.
Private landholders who objected to having their property seized for the project also emerged in the process of construction.
As of January 15, the government had spent around $6 billion of the nearly $11 billion in work it signed contracts to have done.
It is still not clear if some contracts have already been agreed upon, meaning the government could lose out on some money if it cancels these projects.
In one of his last days as president, Trump visited the southern border wall to celebrate 400 miles completed in his four years. He even signed the wall.
