WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Wednesday that he would stop construction of the border wall between the United States and Mexico if he's elected president.
"There will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration," Biden said in an interview during the virtual conference for the National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
Instead of building more border wall, the former vice president said he would focused on "high-tech capacity to deal with it and at the ports of entry, that's where all the bad stuff is happening."
President Donald Trump has made building some 450 miles of wall on the U.S.-Mexico border a defining issue of his presidency. Trump has repeatedly falsely asserted that Mexico is paying for ongoing construction of the wall.
Biden was also asked Wednesday what he would do about land confiscations, where the government seizes private land to build border walls.
"End it. End. Stop. Done. Over. Not going to do it. Withdraw the lawsuits. We’re out. We’re not going to confiscate the land,” he said.
In June, a federal appeals court ruled against the Trump administration in its transfer of $2.5 billion from military construction projects to build sections of the U.S. border wall with Mexico, ruling it illegally sidestepped Congress, which gets to decide how to use the funds.
However, the administration has already awarded much of the money, including a $1.3-billion job in Arizona that was announced in May. Trump visited Yuma, Arizona, in late June to mark completion of the 200th mile of border wall during his administration, much of it with the transferred military funds that the 9th Circuit panel found illegal.
