多年来，诺拉·加尔扎和她的丈夫德尔非诺一直与司法部和陆军工程兵部队在德克萨斯州格兰德市美墨边境附近的30英亩土地上作战，特朗普政府曾寻求这块土地来建造边界墙。
但是他们停止了政府的消息“就在选举加尔扎告诉美国广播公司新闻。
在竞选公职后，发誓不要再建“另一只脚”唐纳德·特朗普美国总统乔·拜登(Joe Biden)在就职日签署了一项命令，结束了边境的国家紧急状态，启动了对该项目的60天审查，暂停了所有建设，并呼吁制定一项计划，以重新分配未用资金。
据一名白宫官员称，在60天的标志后近一个月，隔离墙的未来仍处于悬而未决的状态，审查仍在继续，因为拜登政府正在努力应对围绕特朗普签名项目的竞争压力，该项目旨在阻止拜登目前正在努力遏制的非法移民流。这个问题，加上拜登最近在允许进入美国的难民人数上的摇摆不定，是政府正在努力制定移民政策的另一个例子。
“60天的期限来了又去，”在法庭上代表边境地主的德克萨斯州律师卢克·埃利斯说。“我们从政府律师那里得到的最新消息...他们仍然不知道会发生什么。”
从亚利桑那州到德克萨斯州，边境墙的建设一直持续到拜登1月20日就职。在一些地方，材料和设备被突然放弃。正如美国广播公司新闻最近在报道德克萨斯州南部边境之旅时所看到的那样，隔离的30英尺长的钢护柱矗立在墙的大缺口之间的边境上。
拜登政府在其审查中冻结了所有正在进行的工作，并寻求减缓法院的法律程序。根据德克萨斯州民权项目，在德克萨斯州，有140多起活跃的征用权案件。
“总统已经非常明确地表示，他承诺不再没收土地，”劳拉·培尼亚说，她是这个非营利组织的律师，她呼吁拜登保持他的竞选活动保证“撤回”诉讼并将财产归还给土地所有者。"从我们的角度来看，这感觉像是一次重大的背叛。"
上周，一名法官允许政府从德克萨斯州米什的卡瓦佐斯家族手中没收6英亩土地，这是该家族几十年来出租给租户的位于里奥格兰德河的财产。
何塞“弗雷德”卡瓦佐斯，71岁的家庭成员，告诉美国广播公司新闻，他对法官的裁决以及拜登政府对他的土地的持续追求感到失望。
“这就像他在掉头，”卡瓦佐斯谈到拜登时说。“如果他不是故意的，为什么要说‘没有墙’呢?”
一名司法部官员告诉美国广播公司新闻，拜登政府已采取行动，将上届政府开始的法院案件推迟到正在进行的审查期间，上周批准的占有权动议是在2020年提出的，不是拜登政府提出的。
这位官员说:“DOJ在未决案件中寻求延续，包括本案，在本案中，鉴于拜登总统宣布终止美国南部边境的国家紧急状态，并指示‘仔细审查为修建南部边境墙而划拨或改变用途的所有资源’，政府此前已提出了在西南部边境拥有土地的动议。”。
美国国土安全部部长亚历杭德罗·马约尔卡斯最近告诉机构员工，为了填补隔离墙沿线的一些“缺口”，建筑工程可能会恢复，这给土地所有者们带来了更多复杂的信息华盛顿时报。该机构的发言人没有回答有关部长的评论和建筑仍在继续的问题。
白宫新闻秘书Jen Psaki最近让总统远离该项目，但没有确认拜登的竞选承诺。
“国会已经分配了继续修建隔离墙的部分资金。因此，我们在允许的范围内工作，但我们的重点不是——我们不认为隔离墙是答案，”普萨基告诉美国广播公司新闻首席白宫记者塞西莉亚·维加。
“有一些有限的建设已经得到了资助和分配，但除此之外，它被暂停了，”普萨基说。
拜登向国会提交的第一份预算提案要求“不得为隔离墙追加资金”，并要求立法者在2021年底取消任何未用资金。
用日益增多的移民一些民主党人试图从西南边境进入美国，希望拜登推倒特朗普的墙，而另一些人建议他至少完成一些未完成的工作——让拜登政府陷入困境，因为它试图专注于新冠肺炎的回应和拜登在国会山推动的主要基础设施计划。
共和党人抓住移民人数不断增加的机会在美墨边境寻求庇护，政府处理中心人满为患，批评拜登的移民政策，并违背他的边境墙承诺。
参议员迈克·布劳恩。他和其他17名共和党同事一起访问了德克萨斯州南部的边境，他告诉美国广播公司新闻，边境安全官员告诉立法者，移民正在利用德克萨斯州麦克艾伦地区隔离墙的缺口。
参议院共和党人呼吁政府问责办公室评估拜登政府是否违反了《扣押控制法案》——这是1974年针对特朗普的第一桩弹劾案的核心法律，限制了总统扣留资金的权力。
尽管民主党人和共和党人同意拜登可以将特朗普从五角大楼挪用的数十亿美元转用于资助该项目，但共和党人辩称，国会批准的未使用的隔离墙资金只能用于其最初目的。
白宫管理和预算办公室的发言人说，拜登的行动符合拨款法。
由于隔离墙的状况或宣布时间表不太清楚，民主党人和活动人士决心让拜登遵守他的竞选承诺，停止建设。
众议院主要进步人士、明尼苏达州民主党众议员伊尔汉·奥马尔(Ilhan Omar)呼吁拜登拆除整个项目。
“隔离墙是仇外心理和仇恨的纪念碑，无助于解决移民和庇护申请的根源——美国经常加剧的原籍国的暴力和动荡，”来自索马里的前难民奥马尔在一份声明中说。
在党的另一边，德克萨斯州的边境众议员亨利·库勒尔说，拜登应该“根据具体情况”决定是拆除还是继续修建隔离墙的一部分。
他表示，政府应该将隔离墙资金转向技术和其他边境基础设施，并警告说，鉴于移民危机和正在进行的共和党攻击，民主党可能会在2022年中期选举中因未能在边境安全问题上采取更强硬的立场而受到选民的惩罚。
根据海关和边境保护局的数据，今年3月，超过17.2万名移民在西南边境被政府拘留，这是近20年来单月拘留人数最多的一次。
加尔萨(Garza)是葡萄园主，他丈夫的家庭拥有他们的地块已经有数百年了，他呼吁拜登政府停止隔离墙工程，归还已经被没收的土地。
“他们应该停止和停止。没有墙了。反正大家都是要熬过去的。你已经看到他们放下婴儿，”她说。
无论拜登决定如何处理隔离墙，在法庭上代表土地所有者的德克萨斯州律师埃利斯预计，他的政府需要“相当长的时间”才能摆脱特朗普的隔离墙。
“这并不像政府说的那样容易，我们正在增加赌注，我们已经完成了，”他说。“对于他们对业主所做的一些负面影响，仍将会有更多的诉讼。”
After pledging not to build up Trump's border wall, Biden's intentions remain unclear
For years, Nora Garza and her husband Delfino have fought with the Justice Department and Army Corps of Engineers over 30 acres of land near the U.S.-Mexico border in Rio Grande City, Texas -- a parcel sought by the Trump administration for construction of theborder wall.
But they stopped hearing from the government "right before theelection," Garza told ABC News.
After running for office vowing not to build "another foot" ofDonald Trump's wall, President Joe Biden signed an order on Inauguration Day ending the national emergency at the border and launching a 60-day review of the project, pausing all construction and calling for a plan to redirect unspent funds.
Nearly a month after that 60-day mark, the wall's future remains in limbo and the review continues, according to a White House official, as the Biden administration struggles to address competing pressures over Trump's signature project meant to prevent the very flow of illegal migration Biden is now working to contain. The issue, together with Biden's recent wavering on the number of refugees allowed into the United States, is another example of the administration's ongoing struggle to chart its immigration policies.
"The 60-day window has come and gone," said Luke Ellis, a Texas attorney representing border landowners in court. "The most recent update we have from the lawyers for the government ... is that they still don't know what is going to happen."
From Arizona to Texas, construction on sections of the border wall continued up until Biden took office on Jan. 20. In some places, materials and equipment were abandoned abruptly. Isolated 30-foot steel bollards stand on the border in between large gaps in the wall, as ABC News recently saw on reporting trips to the border in southern Texas.
The Biden administration froze all ongoing work in its review, and has sought to slow legal proceedings in court, where, in Texas, there are more than 140 active eminent domain cases, according to the Texas Civil Rights Project.
"The President has been very clear on the record that he's committed to no longer confiscating land," said Laura Peña, an attorney with the nonprofit group, which has called on Biden to keep his campaignpledgeto "withdraw" the lawsuits and return property to landowners. "From our perspective, this has felt like a major betrayal."
Last week, a judge allowed the government to seize 6 acres of land from the Cavazos family, in Mission, Texas, property on the Rio Grande River the family has rented out to tenants for decades.
Jose "Fred" Cavazos, a 71-year-old member of the family, told ABC News he is disappointed by the judge's ruling, and the Biden administration's continued pursuit of his land.
"It's like he's making a U-turn," Cavazos said of Biden. "Why say 'no more walls' if he doesn't mean it?"
A Justice Department official told ABC News the Biden administration has moved to delay the court cases started under the previous administration for the duration of the ongoing review, and that the motion for possession granted last week was filed in 2020, not by the Biden administration.
"DOJ sought continuances in pending cases, including in this case, in which the government had previously filed motions for possession of land on the southwest border, in light of President Biden's Proclamation terminating the national emergency at the southern border of the United States and directing 'a careful review of all resources appropriated or redirected to construct a southern border wall,'" the official said.
Adding to the mixed messages to landowners, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently told agency employees that construction may resume to plug some of the "gaps" along the wall, according to theWashington Times. Agency spokespeople did not respond to questions about the secretary's reported comments and about areas where construction is continuing.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki recently distanced the president from the project but did not affirm Biden's campaign trail promise.
"There are some components of the wall that had already been allocated, the funding, to continue building by Congress. So we are working within what is allowable, but our focus is not -- we do not believe the wall is in answer," Psaki told ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega.
"There is some limited construction that has been funded and allocated for, but it is otherwise paused," Psaki said.
Biden's first budget proposal to Congress requested "no additional funding" for the wall and asked lawmakers to cancel any unspent funds at the end of 2021.
With agrowing number of migrantsseeking to enter the U.S. from the southwest border, some Democrats want Biden to tear Trump's wall down, while others suggest that he should at least complete some of the unfinished work -- leaving the Biden administration in a difficult situation as it seeks to focus on the COVID-19 response and Biden's major infrastructure plan push on Capitol Hill.
Republicans haveseized on the rising number of migrantsseeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border and the scenes of overcrowded government processing centers to criticize Biden's approach to immigration -- and push back on his border wall pledge.
Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., who visited the border in southern Texas with 17 other GOP colleagues, told ABC News that border security officials told lawmakers migrants were taking advantage of the gaps in the wall around the McAllen, Texas area.
Senate Republicans have called on the Government Accountability Office to assess whether the Biden administration violated the Impoundment Control Act - a 1974 law at the heart of the first impeachment case against Trump, that limits a president's power to withhold funds.
While Democrats and Republicans agree Biden can redirect billions Trump diverted from the Pentagon to fund the project, Republicans argue that unspent wall funds approved by Congress can only be used for their original purpose.
A spokesperson for the White House Office of Management and Budget said Biden's actions were consistent with appropriations law.
With little clarity as to the status of the wall or timetable for an announcement, Democrats and activists are intent on keeping Biden to his campaign commitment to stop construction.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., a leading House progressive, has called on Biden to tear down the entire project.
"The wall is a monument of xenophobia and hatred that does nothing to address the root causes of migration and asylum claims -- violence and unrest in the countries of origin that the United States has often exacerbated," Omar, a former refugee from Somalia, said in a statement.
On the other side of the party, border Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, said Biden should determine whether to tear down or continue building portions of the wall on a "case-by-case basis."
He said the administration should redirect wall funds to technology and other border infrastructure and warned that Democrats could be punished by voters in the 2022 midterms for not taking a tougher position on border security in light of the migrant crisis and ongoing GOP attacks.
More than 172,000 migrants were taken into government custody at the southwest border in March, according to Customs and Border Protection, the largest single-month total in nearly two decades.
Garza, the vineyard owner whose husband's family has owned their parcel of land for hundreds of years, called on the Biden administration to stop the wall project and return land that had already been seized.
"They should just cease and desist. No more walls. People are going to get over it anyway. You've seen them drop the babies," she said.
Regardless of what Biden decides to do with the wall, Ellis, the Texas attorney representing landowners in court, anticipated that it would take "quite a while" for his administration to disentangle itself from Trump's wall.
"It's not as easy as the government saying we're picking up stakes, we're done," he said. "There will still be more litigation over some of the negative consequences of what they've done to property owners."
