{"id":1968268,"date":"2023-07-10T06:26:02","date_gmt":"2023-07-10T10:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wall-of-waste-biden-ending-trump-wall-leaves-border-rancher-with-field-of-rusting-steel\/"},"modified":"2023-07-10T06:30:09","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T10:30:09","slug":"wall-of-waste-biden-ending-trump-wall-leaves-border-rancher-with-field-of-rusting-steel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wall-of-waste-biden-ending-trump-wall-leaves-border-rancher-with-field-of-rusting-steel\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden&#8217;s decision to halt Trump&#8217;s wall leaves border rancher with field of decaying steel."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwall-of-waste-biden-ending-trump-wall-leaves-border-rancher-with-field-of-rusting-steel%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1968268&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Millions of Dollars of Steel Left to Waste in the High Desert<\/h2>\n<p>In the vast expanse of the high desert in Deming, New Mexico, lies a forgotten treasure trove of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/us-shortages-threaten-bidens-infrastructure-plan\/\" title=\"US Shortages Threaten Biden's Infrastructure Plan\">construction materials<\/a>. For two and a half years, these materials have been neglected by the federal government, left behind after President Joe Biden halted border wall construction initiated by his predecessor, Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Fourth-generation cattle rancher Russell Johnson has witnessed this neglect firsthand. Every day, as he drives his truck down the dirt roads behind his house, he is greeted by fields of steel beams, each over 30 feet long, scattered across his property. But the most striking sight is the nearly mile-long hole in the border wall, just a few hundred feet away.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d much rather see this going in gaps than just sitting out here,&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Johnson laments the government&#8217;s failure to clean up what it left behind. Not only is it an eyesore in the beautiful landscape, but it also limits where his livestock can graze. Border residents like Johnson are unable to move the abandoned materials, which have become a warehouse for canceled projects.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;I don\u2019t think they have any idea,&#8221; Johnson said when asked if the White House or Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas knew about the abandoned materials. &#8220;Secretary Mayorkas has never been out here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>Promised a Wall, Left with a Backyard Wasteland<\/h3>\n<p>The wall, standing 30 feet tall, stretches for 100 miles along Highway 9 from El Paso, Texas, to central New Mexico. However, on Johnson&#8217;s property, there is a mile-long gap where the wall was never completed. This gap, along with a smaller opening, has become an opportunity for drug smugglers and Mexican cartels to infiltrate the United States undetected.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson&#8217;s disappointment is not just about the unfinished wall. He had hoped that the wall would prevent cattle in Mexico from crossing into the U.S. through cut barbed wire fencing. The wall would have alleviated the responsibility of ranchers like Johnson in maintaining an international boundary and protecting their livestock from diseases.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;One thing this wall has done is alleviated the responsibility off of us in maintaining an international boundary,&#8221; Johnson said. &#8220;Anybody that ranched along the border that had barbed wire fence \u2014 you were basically the first line of security between any [livestock] disease or outbreak of any sort coming out of Mexico into the U.S. And a lot of people don\u2019t realize that \u2014 even within our own industry \u2014 the ranchers along the border were keeping not just our ranches safe but our industry as a whole because we were maintaining that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>&#8216;Rusting Away&#8217; in the Backyard Wasteland<\/h3>\n<p>The backyard wasteland is filled with hundreds, if not thousands, of once-pristine eight-foot-wide panels of slatted steel beams. These materials were meant to be used for all-weather roads along the wall, improving the safety of Border Patrol agents. However, they now sit abandoned, weathering away.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of being put to use, the rocks from the nearby mountainside, which were supposed to be crushed into gravel for the roads, remain in piles on Johnson&#8217;s ranch and his neighbor&#8217;s land. Construction crews are now using canceled wall funds to pave cement roads over the Chepas Mountain, while dozens of floodgates in the wall remain welded shut or frequently cut off by smugglers.<\/p>\n<h3>Two Broken Promises<\/h3>\n<p>The Biden administration&#8217;s decision to halt the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-terminates-military-border-wall-construction-cancels-contracts\/\" title=\"Biden Terminates Military Border Wall Construction, Cancels Contracts\">border wall project<\/a> has left Johnson and other border residents in the dark. No one has communicated with them about the fate of the abandoned materials or a plan to restore their land. The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has proposed plans to wrap up the projects, including closing gaps, installing gates, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wall-of-waste-biden-ending-trump-wall-leaves-border-rancher-with-field-of-rusting-steel\/\" title=\"Biden's decision to halt Trump's wall leaves border rancher with field of decaying steel.\">completing erosion control measures<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>CBP has also promised to clean up the sites where materials remain, removing all construction materials and restoring staging areas to their original condition. However, the process has been slow, and Johnson is concerned that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/10-billion-in-fraudulent-pandemic-relief-funds-returned-to-u-s-government\/\" title=\"+ Billion in Fraudulent Pandemic Relief Funds Returned to U.S. Government\">taxpayer money spent<\/a> on these materials will go to waste.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;It just doesn\u2019t sit well with me that this is taxpayer money just sitting out here and rusting away in the New Mexico desert,&#8221; Johnson said. &#8220;This is brand-new metal. It\u2019s already been fabricated and stuff, ready to be installed in the border wall, but the government \u2014 rather than putting it in and installing it like it was intended to be \u2014 they\u2019re going to sell it for scrap, which is going to &#8230; make this worth pennies on the dollar compared to what it could have been.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Johnson hopes that the materials can be used elsewhere on the border, rather than being sold for scrap. However, the Department of Homeland Security and CBP have not responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Deming, New Mexico, the federal government has left millions of dollars worth of steel to decay in the desert for two and a half years. President Biden&#8217;s decision to halt border wall construction has resulted in neglect. Russell, a fourth-generation cattle rancher, has witnessed 901 days pass without any action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1968269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1968268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1968268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1968269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1968268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1968268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1968268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}