President Joe Biden has repealed the law emergency order that was used to fund Trump’s border wall. On Thursday, Biden wrote in a letter to the US Congress, arguing that the order issued by the previous administration was “unwarranted” and added that no further tax money will be spent on the construction of the wall at the US-Mexico border.
In 2019, former President Donald Trump over the situation at the southern border, allowed him to bypass the American Congress and use the military funds for the wall’s construction. In January 2021, when Trump left office a total of $25 billion had already been spent on the wall.
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The announcement from the White House is the latest in a flurry of executive order reversing the former administration’s policies. A week ago, Biden ordered a review into Trump’s immigration agenda and signed an executive order seeking to reunite the families split up by Trump-era policies. Thursday’s letter noted the new administration would also seek a review of all the resources redirected towards the wall construction project.
Although the Democratic lawmakers criticized the project, Trump announced that he would use executive powers to fund the construction. Under the US constitution, an emergency order allows the president to avoid the normal political process and use the military funds. Before Trump took office in 2017, at least 654 miles were already in place.
However, under Trump, only eight miles of new barriers were built, and almost four hundred miles of fencing was replaced. In response to Biden’s decision, Jason Miller, the former president’s campaign advisor, took to Twitter and said that the new president “loves illegal immigration.” Despite Biden’s order, some parts of previous laws will remain in place. Jen Psaki confirmed that the Biden administration would keep a previous policy that allowed the border officials to expel undocumented immigrants amidst the coronavirus outbreak across the country.
