6-10-2023 (WASHINGTON) President Joe Biden’s administration announced on Thursday its decision to continue the construction of sections of the border wall, a policy initially championed by former President Donald Trump. This move comes as Trump leads the race for the Republican Party’s nomination to challenge President Biden, a Democrat, in the 2024 presidential election. Trump’s promise to “Build That Wall” was a central tenet of his first presidential campaign.
One of Biden’s early actions upon taking office in January 2021 was to declare that “no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall.” He also initiated a review of the resources that had already been allocated for the project.
The administration clarified that this decision to proceed with the construction did not deviate from Biden’s earlier proclamation, as it involved the expenditure of funds allocated during Trump’s tenure in 2019. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas emphasized that “from day one, this Administration has made clear that a border wall is not the answer.”
Mayorkas further explained that this construction project was funded during the prior administration, and the law compels the government to use these funds, as announced earlier this year. “We have repeatedly asked Congress to rescind this money, but it has not done so, and we are compelled to follow the law,” Mayorkas stated.
Trump responded promptly to the news, asserting his victory and demanding an apology. He took to social media, stating, “As I have stated often, over thousands of years, there are only two things that have consistently worked, wheels, and walls! Will Joe Biden apologise to me and America for taking so long to get moving…”
Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador viewed this decision as “a step backwards.”
Immigration is expected to be a prominent theme in the upcoming US presidential election, as a majority of Americans, 54%, agree with the statement that “immigration is making life harder for native-born Americans,” according to a September Reuters/Ipsos poll. This sentiment is shared by 73% of Republicans and 37% of Democrats.
The Biden administration’s choice to proceed with the construction of border barriers opens the president to criticism from his left-leaning base, including immigration advocates and environmentalists who oppose further construction.
In a notice published in the Federal Register on Thursday, Biden’s Department of Homeland Security declared that it was necessary to waive numerous laws, regulations, and other legal requirements to construct barriers in Starr County, Texas. This county is part of the Rio Grande Valley Sector, where Border Patrol agents have encountered over 245,000 individuals entering the United States during this fiscal year, as stated by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in the Federal Register post.
Environmentalists expressed their dissatisfaction with this decision. Laiken Jordahl, Southwest conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, which has opposed the wall, commented, “Starr County is home to some of the most spectacular and biologically important habitat left in Texas, and now bulldozers are preparing to rip right through it.”
The White House defended its approach, highlighting its efforts to address the “broken immigration system” inherited from the previous administration. The administration has aimed to increase legal pathways for migrants and invest in border security technology.
The Biden administration has grappled operationally and politically with a record number of migrant crossings at the US-Mexico border during Biden’s term, with new highs reached in September. While Biden had initially pledged to roll back many of Trump’s immigration policies, he maintained a COVID-era public health order known as Title 42, which allowed border agents to expel migrants to Mexico without granting them the opportunity to seek asylum.
When Title 42 expired on May 11 this year, the Biden administration replaced it with a more stringent rule that required migrants to schedule an appointment on a government-run smartphone app before approaching a legal port of entry. Those who crossed the border illegally faced a higher bar for asylum. Migrant numbers initially dropped after this rule’s implementation, but they have been rising again in recent weeks, partly due to an influx of migrants from Venezuela.
In another significant enforcement action announced on Thursday, the Biden administration stated that it would resume deportation flights to Venezuela, which had been suspended due to strained relations between the two countries. Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, many escaping economic and political turmoil, have made their way to the US-Mexico border in the past two years.
The surge in migrants has placed pressure on US cities at the border and further north. Asylum seekers can be released into the country to pursue their claims in immigration court, where over 2 million cases are currently pending, according to the US Department of Justice, and many take years to resolve.
Republican governors in states near the border, who claim that Biden is not doing enough to curb the crossings, have transported some arriving migrants to cities led by Democrats, such as New York and Chicago. Consequently, even Democratic leaders in these cities have criticized Biden.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently embarked on a trip to Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador to convey to potential migrants that his city cannot accommodate them, as local shelter systems have become overwhelmed.
Approximately 11 million immigrants in the US lack legal documentation, as reported by the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute. Many of these individuals have resided and worked in the country for years or even decades.
Biden initially sought to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill in Congress early in his term, but opposition from Republicans stalled progress.
