{"id":1968271,"date":"2023-07-10T06:30:04","date_gmt":"2023-07-10T10:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wall-of-waste-biden-ending-trump-wall-leaves-border-rancher-with-field-of-rusting-steel-2\/"},"modified":"2023-07-10T06:33:26","modified_gmt":"2023-07-10T10:33:26","slug":"wall-of-waste-biden-ending-trump-wall-leaves-border-rancher-with-field-of-rusting-steel-2","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-2\/","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=\"&quot;\"><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-2%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=1968271&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 construction materials. 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 <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.\">cut barbed wire fencing<\/a>. 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, along with piles of rock and gravel.<\/p>\n<p>While some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/man-charged-with-first-degree-murder-following-fatal-miss-casino-shooting\/\" title=\"Man charged with first-degree murder following fatal Miss. casino shooting\">construction crews<\/a> are using canceled wall funds to pave cement roads over the nearby Chepas Mountain, the abandoned materials continue to rust away. Johnson is frustrated that taxpayer money is being wasted, as the government plans to sell the metal for scrap instead of using it to complete the border wall.<\/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 believes that the abandoned materials should be given to states like Texas or Arizona, where they can be used to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-admin-claimed-it-inked-deal-with-guatemala-to-increase-border-security-guatemala-says-it-never-signed\/\" title=\"Biden Admin Claimed It Inked Deal With Guatemala To Increase Border Security. Guatemala Says It Never Signed.\">strengthen border security<\/a>. However, the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection 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":1968272,"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-1968271","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\/1968271","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=1968271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1968271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1968272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1968271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1968271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1968271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}