The Justice Department appeared surprised by the ruling and timing.
In February, the Justice Department asked the Texas Southern District Court for a continuance in the Cavazos case, citing Mr Biden s proclamation. Judge Alvarez extended the case into April. 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, a Justice Department official said in a statement to CNN. Immediately before yesterday s court hearing, which had been reset from February 16 to April 13 due to the proclamation, the judge granted the Department s motion for possession that was originally filed in 2020.
Initially, the administration made a commitment that seemed to entertain that promise.
Biden issued a presidential proclamation on January 20 that called for an immediate pause on border wall construction, with a 60-day review period to lay out a plan for how to repurpose emergency border wall funding and determine whether land confiscations would move forward. The Department of Justice had an opportunity to withdraw the 140 land seizure cases that carried over from the Trump administration during or after the 60-day review period, as Biden had committed to doing on the campaign trail.
The White House quietly missed its deadline to produce the plan mentioned in the proclamation, and the Office of Management and Budget issued a statement saying a plan was still in the works.
POLITICO
Biden promised to stop seizing border wall land. His DOJ is still doing it.
The administration is past a self imposed 60-day deadline to review resources for the wall. And it’s still taking land for it.
Despite President Joe Biden’s promise to quickly reverse Trump’s immigration policies, he has yet to act on many of them from failing to increase the cap on refugees to rescinding a ban on most migrants at the southern border. But fewer issues carry as much symbolic weight as the border wall. | AP Photo/Julio Cortez
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Nearly three months into office, Joe Biden’s administration is seizing land near the southern border, fueling fears that the government will continue building one the most enduring symbols of Donald Trump’s presidency: a border wall.