Disclaimer: This article may contain the personal views and opinions of the author.
For reasons both obvious and not, walls have been a sizable part of political discourse over the last couple years. The Raging Patriot reported earlier this month that Governor Abbott issued an executive order that empowers the Texas National Guard. “While President Biden refuses to do his job and enforce the immigration laws enacted by Congress, the State of Texas is once again stepping up and taking unprecedented action to protect Americans and secure our southern border,” Abbott said.
“The cartels have become emboldened and enriched by President Biden’s open border policies, smuggling in record numbers of people, weapons, and deadly drugs like fentanyl.” The executive order points to Article IV of the U.S. Constitution, which states: “[t]he United States . . . shall protect each [State in this Union] against Invasion,’ and thus has forced the State of Texas to build a border wall, deploy state military forces, and enter into agreements as described in Article I, § 10 of the U.S. Constitution to secure the State of Texas and repel the illegal immigration that funds the cartels.” “I have authorized the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety to begin returning illegal immigrants to the border to stop this criminal enterprise endangering our communities,” he said. “As the challenges on the border continue to increase, Texas will continue to take action to address those challenges caused by the Biden Administration.”
That, again, was only earlier this month. But now, it is being reported that President Joe Biden’s administration has approved a Trump-era project to finish a section of the southern border wall in California.
Friends of Friendship Park told KPBS that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said that the primary and secondary border fences along the park will be replaced with 30-foot walls.
“The park, a binational spot between San Diego and Tijuana, represents the western-most point of the U.S. along the border with Mexico. It has been the only place along the southern border where people in the U.S. could see and even touch relatives in Mexico,” the report stated.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas approved the designs, which were initially authorized by the Trump administration in the budget for Fiscal Year 2018, the Daily Mail reported.
The project will replace and further extend existing barriers with two walls that began being added during the Trump administration.
“This latest announcement really amounts to the complete desecration of this historic location,” said Rev. John Fanestil, a longtime Friendship Park advocate. “We believe that the Biden administration should not be putting the finishing touches on Donald Trump’s border wall at Friendship Park.”
“We were kind of under the illusion that when Border Field State Park was going to reopen, they were going to reopen Friendship Park as well,” Rev. Seth Clark told KPBS. “But that has not happened.”
The administration insists the construction is to “replace” existing walls, despite using Trump-era designs.
