The Biden administration has fast tracked plans to resume building a barrier along the US-Mexico border, in an admission of the severity of the migrant crisis.
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas quietly announced late Wednesday that 20 miles of wall will be built in the Rio Grande Valley in Southeast Texas, citing an “acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers” to prevent more people from entering the country illegally.
“The United States Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector is an area of ‘high illegal entry,’ ” said Mayorkas. “Therefore, I must use my authority . . . to install additional physical barriers and roads in the Rio Grande Valley Sector.”
Biden repeatedly voiced his opposition to the wall while running in 2020, saying: “There will not be another foot of wall construction in my administration.”
After taking office in 2021, he called building a wall a “waste of money” in an executive order, and he doubled down Thursday by replying “no” when asked by reporters if he thought the wall was effective — despite the fact that the Department of Homeland Security signed off last year on closing four gaps in the border wall near Yuma, Ariz., which had also seen large flows of migrants, as well as replacing a deteriorated section of barrier near San Diego.
This week’s announcement was made notably by Mayorkas, waiving no fewer than 26 federal laws, including the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Air Act to expedite construction.
The document signed by Mayorkas noted the Rio Grande Valley border sector — one of nine along the southern border — has seen 245,000 people attempt to sneak over the border in the 2023 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30.
The US is straining under the burden of so many migrants entering the country and pursuing asylum claims — with Gov. Hochul and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, both Democrats, saying the influx has pushed their major cities past breaking point and blaming the Biden administration for not doing enough to help federally.
Texas Republican George P. Bush — nephew of former president George W. Bush — told The Post the announcement represented Biden “facing reality.”
“Biden has always said that ‘not another foot of wall’ would be built,” he said, “but the magnitude of the Border Crisis is at the point where even Dem leaders demand Biden’s action.”
Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas) said, “Although President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas still refuse to label the horrific situation at our border as a crisis, Secretary Mayorkas is now admitting to an ‘immediate need’ to build additional border wall in Texas.
“Any additional barrier must be followed up by the political will to enforce our immigration laws.
“Twenty miles of border wall will not stop the outright invasion of our country—only consequences will.”
On Thursday, Biden claimed his hands were tied and he “can’t stop” construction of the new sections of the wall because Congress wouldn’t rescind spending on it, which was allocated in 2019.
“The money was appropriated for the border wall,” Biden told reporters in the Oval Office. “I tried to get them to re-appropriate, to redirect that money. They didn’t. They wouldn’t.”
However, an environmentalist told The Post the administration could easily have delayed the construction by allowing it to be tied up in red tape, rather than relaxing the laws to avoid lengthy review processes and potential lawsuits over environmental damage during construction.
“Will Joe Biden apologize to me and America for taking so long to get moving, and allowing our country to be flooded with 15 million illegal immigrants, from places unknown,” Trump wrote Thursday on his Truth Social platform, without citing where he got his figures from.
Work will take place in six proposed sections between Salineño and Rio Grande City in Starr County, Texas.
Fiscal year 2023 saw a record-breaking more than 2.2 million apprehensions recorded by Customs and Border Protection.
The Biden administration said in May it would get tough on migration and announced a plan to enforce laws making it harder for people to enter the country.
However, data from Syracuse University’s TRAC immigration database showed a record 180,000 migrants entering the country in August alone, a number only expected to increase for September.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has repeatedly said in recent weeks that Biden could “flip that switch any day” to take action on the crisis.
Speaking to The Post last week he also congratulated Democratic leaders who were pushing Biden to do more.
“They need to demand what all Americans expect,” he said, “and that is the Biden administration will follow the rule of law and stop illegal immigration.”
Since then other prominent Democrats have voiced their dissatisfaction with Biden’s mishandling of the crisis, including Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, who declared a state of emergency and blasted a “federal crisis of inaction”.
New York City has been inundated with more than 122,000 asylum-seekers since spring 2022 and has around half them still under its care at 200 sites, according to Mayor Adams, who claims the bill will come to $12 billion.
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