A New Mexico rancher said on Monday he believes President Joe Biden’s move to halt construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall was a purely political decision that will hurt American citizens.
When Fox News asked the rancher about the border wall that was going to be built on his property, he said he was “really excited” about the construction that began last April.
“Well, that was that’s been Trump’s motto, through his campaign and through his administration, they were going to build a wall. And it started in April of last year. And we were … really excited that this was happening,” the rancher said. “And then as soon as President Biden took office, he pulled the plug on this project and it came to an immediate halt.”
Fox News reporter Lawrence Jones asked the rancher if locals had complained about the wall, prompting the Biden administration to cease construction on the project.
“Absolutely not. Everybody in our area is in favor of this wall because they’ve seen where it is worked, and that it does work,” the rancher responded.
He continued, “The wall works. This is all a politically driven agenda and this is and this is what’s frustrating to me is the Biden administration, they’re stopping the wall, in my opinion to try to hurt Trump’s legacy of securing the border. When in reality all it is doing is hurting the American people.”
On President Joe Biden’s first day in office, he signed an executive order that terminated former-President Trump’s national emergency declaration of the United States’ southern border and canceled border wall funding, calling the project “not a serious policy solution.”
In the order, Biden said that while the United States has the right and duty to secure its borders and protect Americans from threats, a “massive wall that spans the entire southern border” is a “waste of money that diverts attention from genuine threats to our homeland security.”
“My Administration is committed to ensuring that the United States has a comprehensive and humane immigration system that operates consistently with our Nation’s values,” the order stated. “In furtherance of that commitment, I have determined that the declaration of a national emergency at our southern border in Proclamation 9844 of February 15, 2019 (Declaring a National Emergency Concerning the Southern Border of the United States), was unwarranted. It shall be the policy of my Administration that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall. I am also directing a careful review of all resources appropriated or redirected to construct a southern border wall.”
The Biden administration also announced a 100-day pause on “certain noncitizen” deportations.
