The Trump administration’s top border official defended plans to build a wall and other infrastructure in the Big Bend of Texas despite mounting opposition against the project and a court-ordered pause on construction, saying his goal of fortifying the country’s borders was “non-negotiable”.
Rodney Scott, the commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), said the $46bn wall project was justified despite a bipartisan coalition of landowners, local businesses and environmentalists who view it as a waste of taxpayer money that could be destructive to a region with historically low migrant crossings, in an exclusive interview with the Associated Press.
“Our number one goal right out the gate is we have to know who and what is coming into the United States,” Scott said on Thursday. If the Big Bend region were left without a wall or other border infrastructure while other areas along the border get those fortifications, he said, “I am 100% convinced it will be completely overrun and destroyed.”
The fight over the spectacular Big Bend area, close to the US-Mexico line, where the Rio Grande flows along a massive curve on its way to the Gulf of Mexico, has become a major test for how far the Republican administration is willing to go to shut off the border.
Scott, a former border patrol agent, was tapped by Trump to complete the border barrier.
His agency is responsible for executing a plan funded last summer by Republicans in Congress to line the roughly 2,000-mile (3,200km) border with Mexico with a mixture of steel fences 30ft (9 metre) high, vehicle barriers, new roads and surveillance technology to prevent irregular immigration – and smuggling of drugs and humans.
The Trump administration says it is building about 12 miles (19km) a week. Scott, who gets daily progress updates, said it will be complete by the end of Trump’s second term. The primary border wall – some areas also get a secondary layer – will be done by the end of December 2027.
“We’re actually ahead of schedule,” Scott said.
The wall plan has run into stiff – and bipartisan – resistance in some places, especially Big Bend. The Trump administration suffered a big setback earlier this month when a judge ordered a pause on border wall construction in the region, citing what could be a likelihood that plaintiffs “will suffer serious, irreparable harm without an injunction”. The administration has asked the supreme court to lift the order.
The ruling included any construction in Big Bend national park, an area that has seen a loud bipartisan outcry, including from some Republican lawmakers.
After bulldozers were spotted in the park tearing up ground in August, Scott ordered a pause on all construction-related activity there while he went to talk to people in the region. He said the agency is making other outreach to locals to discuss how to build projects so they don’t mar the park.
“We’re talking through and figuring out what is the right solution for that area,” he said. But he added that “protecting the country” with a barrier is “non-negotiable”. Scott added that the huge steel fences will not go up in the national park because of ongoing lawsuits.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
