Acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan had to take a moment for himself after he was told on December 31 that, against the odds, 450 miles of the new border wall system had been built.
"When I heard, I smiled...I recalled the countless times over a long period of time where a lot of folks in the mainstream media, a lot of critics, again and again, said we'd never get this done," Morgan told reporters during a conference call on Tuesday.
While they reached the goal of 450 miles, much more of the southwest border is slated to be getting the new border wall system, which Townhall reported on in October.
The benefits of the wall speak loudly and clearly: @CBP has recorded fewer illegal border crossings and a decline in drug and human smuggling activities in Border Patrol Sectors where barriers have been deployed. pic.twitter.com/omzx1mtsBL
— CBP Mark Morgan (@CBPMarkMorgan) December 31, 2020
With more than 200 miles of border wall system in Arizona, Border Patrol agents are better positioned to stop illegal activity. In Yuma Sector, illegal entries plummeted over 87% in FY20 compared to FY19. pic.twitter.com/ggGhXv21bV
— CBP Mark Morgan (@CBPMarkMorgan) December 31, 2020
All that progress of securing the southwest border, Morgan warned, can be undone with a Biden administration stopping construction, which Biden has promised to do. Not only will Americans lose out regarding a secure border, but Morgan said the cost to terminate the contracts will be pushed onto the taxpayer because contracts to build more of the border wall system have already been awarded.
"It is going to cost the taxpayers billions of dollars, billions of dollars in settlement fees. We're going to walk away from areas of wall that have already been constructed. There's going to be some areas where let's say we already [dug] a trench and put some rebar in there. We're actually going to stop and pay them extra to remove the rebar and fill in the trench. And in addition to that, we've got about 270 thousand tons of steel bollards that have been produced or are being produced that we're just going to have to walk away from," Morgan said.
"We're either going to have to pay them additional money, on top of the money we paid for the materials, to either destroy what we paid them for already or to store it. It just defies logic for them to just walk away," he added.
Morgan said CBP has already seen an increase in attempted crossings and more migrant caravans being created in response to a perceived opening of borders under a Biden administration.