Free Republic

U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam on Friday night delivered a massive blow to President Donald Trump's plan to reallocate funds from the Defense Department to construct the highly-anticipated wall along America's southern border. Judge Gilliam, an Obama appointee, turned his previous temporary injunction into a permanent injunction, which barred the Trump administration from building the wall in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. President Trump declared a national emergency this year and redirected $6 billion from the Defense Department's various projects to build the border wall. Friday's ruling specifically blocks the administration from using $2.5 billion in military funds...

Please take the time to view this 37:41 video. The Construction people who did this work are beyond amazing. They have built this wall so that tunneling is impossible. It is 7' in the ground in concrete with at least 3' of concrete inside the tubes 10' from the bottom and with a #8 carbon steel rebar inside the tube so that the tubes cannot be cut with a torch, saw, or any means, and there is an electronically monitored fiber optics cable 7' below the surface 40' from the wall that can detect and distinguish small animals, humans, cars,...

City officials in Sunland Park, New Mexico, have delivered a "cease and desist" order to the owners of land where a private border wall is being built. The project doesn't have proper permits to proceed because an application filed was incomplete, Sunland Park spokesman Peter Ibarbo told CNN. "The rules apply to everyone," Ibarbo said. "That's the process." The incomplete application isn't the only issue, Sunland Park Mayor Javier Perea told reporters Tuesday "My understanding is that city ordinance only allows a wall up to six feet tall, and this far exceeds that," he said. The city's chief inspector is...

A private group has announced the construction of a half-mile wall along a section of the U.S.-Mexico border in New Mexico in what it said was the first in the border debate.Similar to the designs used by the Border Patrol, the 18-foot steel bollard wall seals off a part of the border that had been a striking gap in existing fencing, according to We Build the Wall, the group behind the new section.

I suppose this was inevitable. As construction is slated to being on several sections of border wall, both new and existing structures requiring upgrades, a judge has issued a preliminary injunction to prevent certain DoD funds from being used for this purpose. The ACLU brought the suit (how this is a civil liberties case remains a mystery) and once again they found a judge in northern California to deliver the ruling. And just to complete the hat trick, yes… the judge is once again an Obama appointee. (CNN) A federal judge on Friday night blocked President Donald Trump from...

A privately funded organization called "We Build the Wall" began work this weekend on a project to erect a section of border wall in the El Paso sector. Former Kansas Secretary of State, Kris Kobach, said on "Fox & Friends" Monday that the project was undertaken because there is a "ridiculously large gap" near Mount Cristo Rey that drug and human smugglers are taking advantage of. The barrier will be built on private land. Authorities in the El Paso Sector - which provides support for the counties of El Paso and Hudspeth in the state of Texas and the entire...

BARCELONA, Spain — In what might be seen as a Memorial Day gift to President Trump, residents of a mountain range outside of El Paso today woke up to a new vista—a mile-long wall of metal slats constructed along the border with Mexico that just shot up over the weekend. The secret project, which started on Friday evening and was completed by Monday morning, was the work of We Build the Wall, a new group whose director is the former White House strategist Steve Bannon. The CEO is Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, who had raised $20 million to build...

President Trump on Saturday ripped into what he described as an “activist Obama appointed judge” after a federal judge blocked the administration’s plan to reallocate money to building a wall on the southern border with Mexico. “Another activist Obama appointed judge has just ruled against us on a section of the Southern Wall that is already under construction,” he said. “This is a ruling against Border Security and in favor of crime, drugs and human trafficking.” Trump went on to say that the administration is asking for “an expedited appeal.” U.S District Court Judge Haywood Gilliam’s ruling late Friday temporarily...

The Pentagon says it is reallocating $1.5 billion to help pay for construction of 80 miles of wall at the U.S.-Mexican border... Congress was being notified of the move, which follows the Pentagon's decision in March to transfer $1 billion from Army personnel budget accounts to support wall construction. Some lawmakers have been highly critical of the Pentagon shifting money not originally authorized for border security. The combined total of $2.5 billion is in response to President Donald Trump's declaration of a national emergency at the border

WASHINGTON — Stephen Miller was furious — again. The architect of President Trump’s immigration agenda, Mr. Miller was presiding last month over a meeting in the White House Situation Room when he demanded to know why the administration officials gathered there were taking so long to carry out his plans. A regulation to deny welfare benefits to immigrants — a change Mr. Miller repeatedly predicted would be “transformative” — was still plodding through the approval process after more than two years, he complained. So were the new rules that would overturn court-ordered protections for migrant children. They were still not...

The Department of Defense awarded its first contracts to two companies Tuesday for construction of a barrier along the U.S. border with Mexico, according to a notice posted on the DOD’s website. The Galveston, Texas-based company SLSCO was awarded a $789 million contract for “border replacement wall construction” in Santa Teresa, N.M., while Barnard Construction Co., a firm based in Bozeman, Mont., received a contract worth $187 million for “pedestrian wall replacement” in Yuma, Ariz., the DOD’s website stated. Nearly two months after President Trump declared a national emergency to secure funding for the construction of his border wall, the...

President Donald Trump says he's pulling the nomination of his pick to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement... Longtime border official (and the Acting Director) Ron Vitiello appeared to be cruising toward confirmation... The president on Friday confirmed he had pulled the nomination, even as he called Vitiello a "good man." "But we're going in a tougher direction. We want to go in a tougher direction," he said.

President Donald Trump warned Mexico on Thursday he was considering leveling car tariffs if officials failed to stop the flood of migrants from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. “We need help from Mexico, if Mexico doesn’t give the help, that’s okay, we’re going to tariff their cars coming into the United States,” Trump said. The president commented on his ongoing efforts to pressure Mexico to help stop migrants from approaching the Southern border of the United States during a meeting at the White House about economic opportunity zones. Trump backed away from the possibility of closing the border, noting that Mexico...

President Trump backed off his threat to close the border with Mexico, one day before he travels to California to highlight what he is calling an immigration crisis. “We’re going to give them a one-year warning,” Trump said Thursday, referring to Mexico. Trump said that if the flow of drugs and immigrants is not halted, he would then impose new tariffs on Mexican goods, targeting automobiles partly manufactured in Mexico. “If the drugs don’t stop — Mexico can stop 'em if they want — we’re going to tariff the cars. And if that doesn't work, we’re going to close the...

Is there any number of illegal border crossings into the United States that would strike Democrats as an emergency? As they resisted President Trump's efforts to stem the flow of illegal migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, many Democrats made the point that fewer migrants are coming today than years ago, during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush presidencies. The implication was that today's situation cannot be an emergency, because it used to be worse. That doesn't make sense, of course. One could argue that crossings were an unaddressed emergency back then, and that today's figures, although lower, also qualify...

Put yourself in the president’s shoes. He saw the border crisis building. He warned Congress. They did nothing. Now he has to do something. Months ago, the administration alerted lawmakers that the number of people entering the country illegally and making unqualified asylum claims was skyrocketing. The only options were to stop them from crossing or let them in and release them while their bogus claims were being processed. The latter option, Congress was warned, could add another one million to the illegal population before the year was out. It was, by any reasonable definition, a crisis. The White House...

.... nobody really knows how many illegal crossers enter the United States without being caught. A hundred miles west of El Paso on the border in New Mexico, ranchers say the tidal wave of migrants has left the Border Patrol unable to cover this remote stretch of desert where they live. "I'm Russell Johnson. I'm the fourth generation to be ranching out here with my family, and this is the barrier that we've got in one stretch of area that my family farms," one of the ranchers told CBN News. "And as you can see it serves no purpose to...

The White House doubled down Sunday on President Trump’s threat to close the U.S. border with Mexico, despite warnings that the move would inflict immediate economic damage on American consumers and businesses while doing little to stem a tide of migrants clamoring to enter the United States. Sealing the border with Mexico, America’s third-largest trading partner, would disrupt supply chains for major U.S. automakers, trigger swift price increases for grocery shoppers and invite lawsuits against the federal government, according to trade specialists and business executives.

In a February 25 memo to the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security identifies four sectors along the southern border that require reinforcement through barriers, light installation and other measures. Combined, the mileage amounts to approximately 218 miles of new or replacement barrier... The four sectors listed are: El Centro, Yuma, Tucson and El Paso... In the El Centro sector, the Department of Homeland Security requests the replacement of around 15 miles of existing vehicle barrier with new pedestrian fencing, in addition to light installation. The project is located in Imperial County, California. In the Yuma sector, the Department...

President Trump on Friday threatened to close the Southern Border next week if Mexico does not “immediately stop” the record-breaking surge of illegal immigrants flooding into the United States. Trump's warning comes as Customs and Border Protection officials say March is on pace to exceed 100,000 border apprehensions -- the highest monthly total in a decade. According to CBP, this week alone, agents have more than 12,000 migrants in custody., “The DEMOCRATS have given us the weakest immigration laws anywhere in the World. Mexico has the strongest, & they make more than $100 Billion a year on the U.S.,” Trump...