Border Wall Funding – Talking Points:

It’s time to stop funding Trump’s folly.

• Urge Congress to stop funding the border wall now and reject the proposed $1.96 billion contained in the Senate’s Homeland Security appropriations bill.
• Express strong support for $75 million provided in the House version of the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill H.R. 7669 to begin to address damage by border wall construction on public lands. 

Emphasize Public Lands Destruction. By January 20, 2021, the Trump administration will have foisted well over 400 miles of border wall on California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. While media reports have often characterized much of this construction as “replacement” barriers, in fact, the 30-foot wall is new, impenetrable to most wildlife, and significantly more destructive than the vehicle barriers that were in many of those locations earlier. Moreover, much of the new wall construction has taken place on some of our nation’s most fragile and biodiverse habitat, including national wildlife refuges and other public lands.

Connect reckless spending to the pandemic. While the country reels from a pandemic, U.S. taxpayers have footed the bill for this destruction, most of it through funds that President Trump raided from funds that Congress appropriated for the Department of Defense and the Department of the Treasury. Wall construction continues at a rapid pace and at phenomenal costs as high as $41 million a mile. 

President-elect Biden has stated that, “there will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration” and that he would stop the condemnation lawsuits that the federal government has filed to seize land for border wall construction, so why is more funding now necessary? This appropriation would hamstring the new administration and force more construction on this wall.