Biden Promises Not To Add Another Foot to Trump's Flimsy "Wall"

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/08/biden-promises-not-to-add-another-foot-to-trumps-flimsy-wall


Biden Promises Not To Add Another Foot to Trump’s Flimsy “Wall”
Still, the Democratic presidential candidate did not commit to tearing down the barriers Trump managed to erect, even as his border wall remains incomplete.
By Eric Lutz
August 5, 2020

snip//


Speaking to reporters from the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists on Wednesday, Democrat Joe Biden said in no uncertain terms that the current president’s pointless and mostly symbolic border project will end if he is elected—no more wall-building, no more land confiscation by the border. “There will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration,” Biden told NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro. “End. Stop. Done. Over. Not going to do it. Withdraw the lawsuits. We’re out,” he continued. “We’re not going to confiscate the land.” But while Biden vowed not to continue building Trump’s border wall, he did not commit to tearing down the barriers that have already been built.

Though Trump’s horrific border policies—the primary goal of which seems to be to inflict as much pain as possible on immigrants from Central and South America, along with places like Haiti and what he calls “shithole” countries in Africa—are among the driving factors in many voters’ opposition to the current administration, there is also concern about what kind of immigration plan Biden would pursue as president. Barack Obama’s approach included protections like the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. He also, however, deported more people than any other president before him. Obama emphasized that his administration targeted dangerous criminals rather than families, but his record nevertheless attracted a great deal of scrutiny, and it became an issue for his former vice president during the primary last year. “What we need are politicians who have some guts on this issue,” Julian Castro said during a Democratic debate, knocking Biden for failing to “learn the lessons of the past” and calling for civil, not criminal, consequences for undocumented individuals caught crossing the border. But Biden didn’t budge: “If you cross the border illegally,” he said at the time, “you should be able to be sent back.”

Biden’s comments to Garcia-Navarro Wednesday might not fully allay concerns about what his border approach might entail, but, as the NPR journalist noted, he took a more aggressive approach on land confiscations than the president he served, describing a vision of security that relied less on barriers than on using “high tech capacity” to monitor the border and a focus on ports of entry. “That's where all the bad stuff is happening,” he said.

Of course, leaving in place the barriers the Trump administration commissioned is no guarantee they’ll last. Saws have been proven capable of cutting through it, border crossers have been able to use ladders to climb over it, and sections of this “virtually impenetrable” wall were felled earlier this year by some wind. If Biden doesn’t tear down Trump’s wall, perhaps the breeze will.