NewsBreak Original

A wall between us and the world beyondPhoto byGreg BullaonUnsplash. In the realm of political discourse, it's easy for certain aspects of a narrative to be lost or distorted. The saga of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, spanning the terms of President Trump and President Biden, provides an example of how complex realities can be oversimplified. Let's examine the facts behind this notable issue.

(Written with the assistance of AI) It's been two years since Governor Greg Abbott launched Operation Lone Star, sending thousands of Texas National Guard troops and Department of Public Safety (DPS) Troopers to the border with Mexico at a cost of well over four billion dollars. And it has made an impact.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will reportedly be meeting with Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs in Tucson this week before the pair travel to the U.S.-Mexico border for a tour of the port of entry in Nogales, it was announced Tuesday.

One top Republican says that he is preparing to introduce a bill to the U.S. Senate that will "set the stage" for military intervention in Mexico as several Republicans have gone on the offensive over U.S.-Mexico border relations following news that multiple American citizens had been kidnapped in the country.

Senator Ted Budd (R-NC) introduced his first bill as a United States Senator, the 'Build the Wall Now Act.' According to a press release from Sen. Budd, the act would require border wall construction to restart within 24 hours, removes all legal impediments to construction, and unlocks $2.1 billion in unspent wall funding. Congress appropriated approximately $6 billion for border wall construction from 2018–2021, but $2.1 billion remains unspent since President Joe Biden’s signed Presidential Proclamation 10142 on first day in office, which paused all funding for the border wall.

Opioid deaths have devastated the Appalachian region of the United States, and West Virginia's two U.S. Senators are asking their federal colleagues to take further action to address the crisis, including enhanced border security. Democrat Senator Joe Manchin joined Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, to lead a bipartisan group of Senators in reintroducing the Public Health and Border Security Act.

Texas continues to build a US-Mexico border wall with leftover panels from Trump’s failed efforts. A total of $1 billion in state tax dollars has since been set aside for the Texas border wall, and the state has received $55.2 million in donations, enough for one mile.

Students unable to attend classes and Texas residents without power or any means to cook or heat their homes. More than 240,000 customers across the state lacked power early Friday, down from 430,000 on Thursday, according to PowerOutage.us. Several school districts across Texas have been closed the past three days because of a winter storm and no power.

A lawsuit filed by the Biden administration resulted in the removal of shipping containers that had been placed, under the authority of former Gov. Doug Ducey, to bridge gaps in the unfinished border wall between Mexico and Arizona. Arizona farmers are upset about it, according to a news report.

Governor Ducey - Yuma shipping container construction. Reports emerged yesterday that Arizona's Director of Emergency Management, Allen Clark, told the Federal Government to forget having them remove the shipping containers Arizona put on the Yuma area border.

The U.S. Government sent a letter to Arizona's Governor and told him to stop putting up shipping containers on the Arizona-Mexico border. They also said it was a "trespass against the United States."

Yesterday, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey posted another Tweet with a 38-second video of two crews working on constructing a fill-in for an Arizona border wall gap. According to the Tweet, this is the 5th gap being filled in by the two Caterpillar excavators with heavy cranes moving and pushing shipping containers. The containers are stacked 2 high and are being put in place consecutively by the excavators.

Governor Doug Ducey yesterday (Aug. 16) released a second set of pictures on Twitter as well as a video of the Yuma area shipping containers that are closing gaps in the border.

Arizona Governor Ducey's move yesterday to fill in sections of the border wall using shipping containers has now gained national attention. Since then Ducey's office has released a video on Twitter showing the beginning of the construction.