Joe Biden Rescinds Donald Trump’s Emergency Order To Build Border Wall
On Thursday, the White House announced that President Joe Biden had rescinded an emergency order issued by former President Donald Trump in order to build a wall along the border between the United States and Mexico, as reported by The Hill.
Biden expounded on his decision in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, describing his predecessor’s move as unnecessary and a waste of tax dollars.
“I have determined that the declaration of a national emergency at our southern border was unwarranted… I have also announced that it shall be the policy of my administration that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall, and that I am directing a careful review of all resources appropriated or redirected to that end,” the letter read.
The border wall was one of the signature promises of Trump’s victorious 2016 presidential campaign. He declared the emergency order in 2019 in response to the difficulty in securing further funding from Congress. The order expanded limits on taxpayer funding and allowed the former president to divert funds from other agencies to the border wall construction project. The decision led to challenges in court from environmental groups and the American Civil Liberties Union in an effort to block the $2.5 billion in Department of Defense spending that had been diverted.
During Biden’s first day in the White House, he issued an executive order that paused all construction and questioned the rationale of the emergency order. Before rescinding the order, the Biden administration also requested that the Supreme Court cancel a scheduled hearing on the border wall’s legality.
“The President has directed the Executive Branch to undertake an assessment of ‘the legality of the funding and contracting methods used to construct the wall,'” read Biden’s appeal.
The request was granted.
This is the latest move by Biden to roll back legislation and rulings by the Trump administration related to immigration and the southern border of the United States. As covered by The Inquisitr, the president signed three executive orders on February 2 that addressed some of the more controversial efforts during Trump’s time in office. One of the orders created a task force with the responsibility of reunifying children who have been separated from their parents during their entry into the United States. Another order seeks an alternative to the suspended Migrant Protection Protocols — better known as “Remain in Mexico” — that require non-Mexican migrants to stay in Mexico until their immigration court date in the United States.
