Between 2017 and January of 2021, over 450 miles of wall was built at the southern border with Mexico under former President Donald Trump, along with other policies he put in place to combat the immigration crisis. Trump’s actions were excoriated by Democrats, including Joe Biden who stated during the 2020 election “There will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration.” That is…until now.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is not only allowing for the border-wall construction to continue, but he has waived an astounding 26 federal laws to do so. The construction will resume in south Texas; the first time the wall has been built since former president Donald Trump left office.
“Building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution,” Biden exclaimed in January of 2021, which coincided with ending the national emergency over the border crisis when he first became president.
How the tides have turned; unfortunately it is too little, too late. “There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States in the project areas,” Mayorkas wrote in a notice Wednesday, which also explained the project will be funded by a congressional appropriations package from fiscal year 2019.
National Review reports that among the 26 laws that the DHS waived includes the Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and Endangered Species Act; all notable environmental laws that limited further construction of the wall.
The new construction project is reported to add an additional 20 miles to the border wall in Starr County, Texas. The area has been experiencing “high illegal entry.” Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector, in which the county is located, has seen over 245,000 illegal migrants enter the U.S. through that area during fiscal year 2023.