Texas leads the way.
Forced to go it alone, Texas officials have managed to erect more than 54 miles of security wall along the international border with Mexico during the Biden administration, the Washington Examiner has learned.
The Texas Facilities Commission installed 54.2 miles of border wall between mid-2021 and Dec. 19, an agency spokesman told the Washington Examiner on Monday.
"Almost a month ago, Director Novak noted 'that the goal was to erect 50 miles of the wall by the end of the calendar year ... that milestone could be achieved by Thanksgiving,'" a TFC spokesperson said in a statement issued last month. "The agency reached that milestone two weeks before Thanksgiving and six weeks ahead of schedule."
The state is now halfway to its goal of delivering a minimum of 100 miles of wall by the end of 2026. All projects were funded by $3.1 billion made available during the 2021 and 2022 regular legislative sessions and the fourth special session in 2022, according to TFC spokesman Richard Glancey. Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) is also crowdfunding donations and has raised $55 million to date.
Construction is underway in 13 locations across six border counties, including Cameron, Maverick, Starr, Val Verde, Webb, and Zapata.
However, the state is expected to blow past its 100-mile goal. To date, Texas has 65 miles of border-adjacent land that has been approved through easement deals and another 109 miles of easements are also underway but not finished yet.
Border Czar Tom Homan
President-elect Donald Trump's signature issue of immigration and border security will occupy much of his first day in office come Jan. 20, 2025.
Trump's plans, including mass deportation and illegal immigration curbs, have been the subject of much debate in the transition period as opponents and supporters await his final decisions.
Trump's Day One executive orders on immigration will be far-reaching with possible plans to:
End birthright citizenship for all would-be Americans;
Re-implement a plan for asylum-seekers to live and remain in Mexico through court proceedings;
Impose a bar on asylum-seekers who have traversed through other countries but not sought refuge there;
Expanded detention facilities to detain illegal immigrants arrested during the deportation proceedings;
Rescind instructions to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that it focus only on the worst criminals in the United States;
Carry out the largest-ever massive deportation the country has seen;
Impose sanctions or withhold foreign aid to countries that refuse to take their citizens back;
Stop the use of U.S. Customs and Border Protection's CBP One app for the purpose of immigration.
Work with Congress to fund border security through reconciliation
House and Senate Republicans are endorsing a two-step approach to enact the incoming Trump administration agenda early next Congress, seeing up a border security-focused reconciliation bill followed by tax legislation.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris (R-MD) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) put House and Senate leadership on notice in late December that a border bill must take priority in January.
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The Trump administration plans to deport criminal illegal immigrants and anyone who an immigration judge has already ordered to be removed from the country, totaling 1 million to 2 million people.
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Homan told the Washington Examiner in mid-December that there would be "a lot of collateral arrests," in addition to those aforementioned -- meaning that illegal immigrant children and family members found living with criminals would also be swept up and deported.
"In sanctuary cities, expect a lot of collateral arrests," Homan said. "I mean, not priority criminal arrests. We can't get the bad guy in jail. That means we have to go into the communities and find them, and there may be others. We expect a lot of collateral arrests."
Anthony Romero, executive president of the American Civil Liberties Union, told MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on Dec. 16 that it, too, was ramping up its team and operations for the forthcoming Trump administration.
