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Border guard at the fortification to Mexico (March 2021): What will happen to Trump's wall promise?
Photo: Julio Cortez / AP
Donald Trump had to leave the White House, but his plans for a border wall with Mexico are still an issue: The US state of Texas wants to push the project forward, while the government in Washington has long been planning other projects with the budget earmarked for it.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is sticking to the controversial project.
The Republican announced that he would continue the work on a border wall with Mexico, which began under ex-President Trump.
Corresponding plans would be officially presented next week, Abbott said.
Accordingly, the police should also be provided with additional funds to arrest people who illegally cross the border.
Abbott initially gave no details about his plans for the wall.
However, there are fundamental doubts about the feasibility of the project, as many border sections are owned by the federal government or by private individuals.
In addition, the incumbent US President Joe Biden has very different plans than his predecessor Trump.
In January, as one of his first official acts, Biden had the funding for the border wall cut off.
Money for school in Rhineland-Palatinate
Biden's government has now explained what will happen to the $ 2.2 billion budget that Trump had budgeted for the construction of the wall on the border with Mexico.
Biden wants to use the money to finance dozens of US military construction projects in the US and around the world.
The money that Trump had reallocated from the defense budget for the border walls was originally intended for such purposes, as the White House and the Pentagon announced.
Part of the money is now also to be used in Germany: 79 million US dollars are to be spent on a primary school in Spangdahlem in the Eifel in Rhineland-Palatinate.
The school, in which, according to the White House, around 600 children are taught by US soldiers, was to be replaced during the time of the previous government.
In total, the money is to be used for 66 construction projects.
The Ministry of Homeland Security wants to use money that was made available to the government by Congress directly for border security and which it must use for this purpose, to remedy security and environmental problems that have arisen from the construction of the border walls.
The money will also be used for cleaning up construction sites.
The government wants to avoid expanding the border walls.
Trump could never keep a promise
"Promise made, promise kept" was the White House slogan when Trump visited Texas in January, shortly before leaving office, to celebrate the completion of more than 400 miles of the border wall. In fact, even before Trump, there was a wall or other form of barrier on around a third of the US border with Mexico. From 2016 onwards, improvements and reinforcements of existing structures were primarily carried out.
Before he was elected President in 2016, Trump had polarized with insulting and racist remarks about Mexican and Central American immigrants and promised to build a “beautiful wall” on the 3200-kilometer southern border.
He wanted to keep undocumented immigrants and criminals away.
The US Congress denied him the funds for the project.
By declaring a national emergency on the southern border, Trump bypassed the blockade and reallocated billions from the defense budget for the construction projects.
Part of Trump's promise was that Mexico would pay to build it, but it never happened.
mmq / AFP / dpa
