Initially, the administration made a commitment that seemed to entertain that promise.
Biden issued a presidential proclamation on January 20 that called for an immediate pause on border wall construction, with a 60-day review period to lay out a plan for how to repurpose emergency border wall funding and determine whether land confiscations would move forward. The Department of Justice had an opportunity to withdraw the 140 land seizure cases that carried over from the Trump administration during or after the 60-day review period, as Biden had committed to doing on the campaign trail.
The White House quietly missed its deadline to produce the plan mentioned in the proclamation, and the Office of Management and Budget issued a statement saying a plan was still in the works.
POLITICO
Biden promised to stop seizing border wall land. His DOJ is still doing it.
The administration is past a self imposed 60-day deadline to review resources for the wall. And it’s still taking land for it.
Despite President Joe Biden’s promise to quickly reverse Trump’s immigration policies, he has yet to act on many of them from failing to increase the cap on refugees to rescinding a ban on most migrants at the southern border. But fewer issues carry as much symbolic weight as the border wall. | AP Photo/Julio Cortez
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Nearly three months into office, Joe Biden’s administration is seizing land near the southern border, fueling fears that the government will continue building one the most enduring symbols of Donald Trump’s presidency: a border wall.
Trump Is Gone, but Land Disputes Along Border Continue Under Biden
A Texas judge allowed the government this week to take possession of a family’s land because the Biden administration has yet to end lawsuits seeking property along the border.
The Department of Homeland Security still has more than $2 billion in unobligated funding for infrastructure at the border wall.Credit.Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times
April 15, 2021, 8:39 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON After battling for years against the Trump administration’s plan to seize some of their family’s land in South Texas to build a border wall, the Cavazos siblings believed the inauguration of President Biden would bring a successful end to their fight.
Judge rules government can take South Texas family s land despite Biden s pause on wall
Three weeks after President Biden s pause on wall-related condemnation cases, a South Texas family lost its court fight over its land on the Texas border.
Corpus Christi Caller Times
AUSTIN, Texas The government can take immediate possession of land in the town of Mission as part of the border wall, even though President Joe Biden has said he does not plan to push forward with the project, a federal judge in South Texas has ruled. The Court grants the United States’ motion and orders all people or entities in possession or control of the Subject Property to surrender possession or control of said property to the extent of the estate being condemned to the United States, immediately, U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez wrote in her ruling handed down this week.
That s un-American : Texas family fighting to keep land along southern border
The family says President Biden has not made good on his promise to end land seizures in south Texas. Author: Anastasiya Bolton (KENS) Updated: 11:19 PM CDT April 15, 2021
MISSION, Texas When running for president, Joe Biden promised the land seizures along the U.S.-Mexico border would stop, saying as much in an interview with NPR.
This week, a federal judge gave the U.S. government a parcel of land its owners have been fighting to keep.
“We don’t want to lose the land. This is our land,” said Reynaldo Anzaldua.