A groundbreaking report released by Senator James Lankford (R-OK), the lead Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Government Operations and Border Management, finds that halting southern border wall construction has cost U.S. taxpayers at least $2 billion.
The new report examines the fiscal costs associated with Department of Defense (DOD) contractors stopping wall construction along the U.S.-Mexico border. On January 20, President Biden signed an executive order that prevented these contractors from building any new wall.
Senator Lankford has vehemently opposed the Biden administration’s reckless decision, calling it “absolutely absurd that Americans are paying contractors to guard metal gates that President Biden refuses to install because he wants to ‘study’ the wall.”
Below are some key findings from the study:
- President Biden’s efforts to suspend or terminate border wall construction have cost U.S. taxpayers between $1.837 billion and $2.087 billion since January 20, 2021. This amount continues to increase by at least $3 million per day.
- At the end of the Trump administration, $10 billion had been transferred to the DOD for border wall construction and related projects. As of June 2021, the Biden administration has wasted roughly $2 billion of this money on suspension and termination costs related to border wall contracts.
- On January 20, 2021, President Biden instructed his administration to “study” the border wall construction for 60 days and then report back their findings. It has been 180 days since the 60-day study commenced. As of the drafting of this report, no study findings have been released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or the Biden administration.
Construction of the southern border wall could not come at a more critical time. Illegal immigration and drugs flows remain rampant at the southern border. Immigration authorities apprehended 189,000 illegal aliens in June—the highest total for the month in 21 years. Also, in June, immigration authorities witnessed a 33 percent increase in both fentanyl and methamphetamine and a nearly 40 percent increase in heroin seizures since February.
Despite these startling figures and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) calling the border wall “a critical component in gaining operational control of the border,” not even a year ago, the Biden administration has elected to toss out taxpayer money and jeopardize public safety due to pressure from open borders advocates.