ARIZONA: Border Wall Contractors Continue to Defy Biden Order to Halt Construction Feb. 10, 2021

[douglas9]

NOGALES, Ariz.— Video footage shared with the Center for Biological Diversity seems to show construction equipment leveling Arizona mountains in critical habitat for endangered jaguars, in an apparent violation of President Biden’s proclamation halting border wall construction. The footage was reportedly shot on Wednesday, Feb. 10, by members of the Tucson Samaritans, who shared it with the Center.

“These alarming videos seem to show construction crews destroying every acre of pristine wildlands they can lay their hands on, in what appears to be blatant disregard of Biden’s order halting construction,” said Laiken Jordahl, borderlands campaigner at the Center. “The Biden administration should investigate this immediately and stop any construction that’s still occurring. Pausing work on the wall isn’t enough. The new administration must cancel these contracts for good and work with border communities and tribal nations to repair all that Trump destroyed.”

The president’s Jan. 20 executive order directed that work “on each construction project on the southern border wall” be paused “as soon as possible, but in no case later than seven days” from the date of the order.

This section of wall, west of Nogales, is a part of a larger 74-mile stretch being built through remote, mountainous terrain that includes the last remaining corridors jaguars use to move back and forth between the United States and Mexico. Many other animals use these remote areas to migrate across the landscape. A 2017 Center report identified 93 threatened and endangered species along the 2,000-mile border that would be harmed by Trump’s wall.

Beyond jeopardizing wildlife, endangered species and public lands, the U.S.-Mexico border wall is part of a larger strategy of ongoing border militarization that damages human rights, civil liberties, native lands, local businesses and international relations. The border wall impedes the natural migrations of people and wildlife that are essential to healthy diversity.

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2021/02/arizona-border-wall-contractors.html

[littlemissmartypants]

1. This infuriates me. nt

[SharonClark]

2. That news is so discouraging.

Biden needs to do more than issue orders. He needs to be prepared for trumpers to violate his orders and he should have people in place who can stop the violators. Not just construction at the border but ICE, too.

Call in the National Guard.

[Raven123]

3. Don't pay them

[3Hotdogs]

4. That's what I was figuriing.

A letter to the contractor(s), "Thanks for your volunteering work.

Then a letter to gub'mint supervisor to not authorize any more payments.

[marble falls]

7. You can't just break a contract. We have due process. When the current step gets met ...

... and the money dries out, it'll stop.

[thucythucy]

12. If they're under contract and

the contractor (in this case the federal government) asks them to stop through no fault or action of their own, they should and probably would be paid regardless. In essence they'd all be getting extra paid vacation.

But now, since they're deliberately acting contrary to the contractor's wishes, the federal government may well be justified in stopping all payments, at least until the matter is settled in court. Then too, the federal government would now be justified in cancelling all future contracts and preventing any contract from being awarded to this company ever again.

I for one would never rehire someone who deliberately kept working on a project I wanted them to stop.

"Hang on, I don't think I want that fence put there right now."

"Fuck you, WE want to put it there, so fuck off!"

Hardly good business sense, in my humble opinion.

[marble falls]

13. Completing a step to get paid is not a "screw you" enterprise. I don't like it, but I do ...

... understand it. These aren't the jokers who put up a rickety fence, these are the site prep guys. In that picture is over a half million in earth moving equipment. They do nothing for a joke. They get paid.

[thucythucy]

14. If they're under contract

and that contract was negotiated by someone who knows what they're doing, they'd get paid anyway. At the very least they should be reimbursed for any expenses the company incurred toward completing the project that are otherwise not recoverable.

If I sign a contract to do some work for someone, get halfway through, make substantial investments in time and money toward that project, and the entity I'm under contract with decides for reasons unrelated to the quality of the work or the terms of the contract (for instance, if I've met all agreed upon deadlines), I expect to get paid for my trouble. Isn't that standard, boilerplate language? If that isn't in their contract then whoever negotiated it or advised them to agree to these terms was remiss.

If it's in the contract, and the federal government stiffs them, they can go to court.

But simply forging ahead like this opens them up to all sorts of liability.

Just as an example, if someone now working on the project is killed or injured, I'd expect whoever holds their insurance might balk at having to pay out.

Not knowing the details I admit I could be wrong, but this to me seems like a bone headed move.

Besides which, I didn't see anything in the article that says the federal government won't pay them anyway. Has the company been told they're about to be stiffed?

[catrose]

8. I was thinking that they shouln't be paid for any work done after the order to stop

[2naSalit]

5. They need to be removed by force then.

[marble falls]

6. They want to bring the work up to the level to collect the next step. Its more about getting ...

... paid than politics. You can't fuel bulldozers on MAGA caps.

[NRaleighLiberal]

9. our own taliban.

[keithbvadu2]

10. Renegotiate the contract to a different location... Mar-A-Lago.

Renegotiate the contract to a different location... Mar-A-Lago.

Use eminent domain laws to take a ten foot swath inside the perimeter of Mar-A-Lago and build the wall there to keep illegals out of there.

Trump has used illegals (RW term) at his golf clubs.

He has several properties that could use protection.

[Mickju]

15. I like this idea!

It would serve the mofo right.

[Ferrets are Cool]

11. How is this possible?

Why is it happening?