5,000 workers lose jobs as wall construction halted by Biden

FPI / January 29, 2021

Shortly after the Jan. 20 inauguration, Joe Biden ordered a halt to all construction on the wall at the U.S. southern border. And with that order Biden killed the livelihood of 5,000 construction workers, the former Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) commissioner said.

“Conservatively, it’s going to cost about 5,000 jobs — construction workers — right now,” former CBP chief Mark A. Morgan told Breitbart News.

Workers in the steel, concrete, and technology industries who supply the materials for the border wall will also be affected.

“Now, keep in mind, they’re going to be paid for what they produced so far,” Morgan said when referring to union members in the steel industry that produce the bollards. “But for the 350 miles that Congress funded for construction … the money they are counting on to feed their families and pay their mortgage, all that goes out the window.”

Morgan said that there are about 270,000 tons of steel bollard fencing that have already been produced but not assembled.

“Think about that. We are not only going to have to pay the contractors for that, but then we’re gonna have to pay the additional money to either destroy it, which is unconscionable, or store it,” Morgan said, adding that there are other partially completed areas that will cost money to undo, such as paying the contractor to pull out pieces of rebar previously laid.

“Conservatively we’re looking at costing taxpayers billions of dollars,” Morgan said.

Just hours after the inauguration, Biden signed an executive order to terminate the emergency declaration on the southern border and halt border wall construction. President Donald Trump had previously extended the emergency declaration on the border until February 2022.

Congress had recently appropriated $1.4 billion for border wall construction in the 2021 National Defense Authorization package.

Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s pick to head the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said he would look into the possibility of removing portions of the border wall.

“I look forward to studying that question, understand the costs and benefits of doing so,” he told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs during his confirmation hearing on Jan. 19.

Free Press International