The Biden administration has walked back President Joe Biden‘s 2020 campaign promise that “there will not be another foot of wall constructed” along the United States-Mexico border with new plans to waive two dozen federal laws in order to swiftly erect a barrier in Texas.
The Department of Homeland Security dropped a notice in the Federal Register Thursday that disclosed its plans to take up 10 projects to install tall slatted barriers and roads in about 20 miles of the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.
DESANTIS BEGINS TO TAKE THE GLOVES OFF AGAINST TRUMP
“The secretary of Homeland Security has determined, pursuant to law, that it is necessary to waive certain laws, regulations, and other legal requirements in order to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads in the vicinity of the international land border in Starr County, Texas,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas wrote in the notice.
Mayorkas described the Rio Grande Valley, where roughly 3,000 Border Patrol agents work, as a “high illegal entry” area. In the first 10 months of fiscal 2023, Border Patrol apprehended more than 245,000 people who illegally entered the country through this one area.
“Therefore, DHS will take immediate action to construct barriers and roads,” Mayorkas wrote.
The forthcoming projects will be paid for with money that Congress appropriated during the Trump administration in 2019 for border barrier projects in the region.
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection told the Washington Examiner on Thursday that it “will be using 18-foot steel bollard fence panels placed in removable concrete jersey barriers, as the steel bollard design remains the most operationally effective design and has been tested and evaluated over the last several years.”
In addition, technology that can detect human activity, lighting, and access roads will also be added.
Walls will be installed in 10 areas of Starr County, including areas in or near Falcon Village, Salineno, Roma, Fronton, Villareales, Las Lomas, El Refugio, and Santa Cruz.
The move is a huge setback for the Biden administration and will upset Democrats who challenged the need for a physical barrier along the 2,000-mile southern border.
Starr County, where the wall is slated to go up, is home to Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX). Cuellar was a thorn in Biden’s side early on, calling out the White House for the record-high number of immigrants illegally crossing the border.
The Biden White House had immediately halted all wall construction on Day One to determine if any remaining construction was necessary. Studies conducted in 2021 and 2022 determined 129 gaps should be filled and a slew of environmental concerns, such as runoff, should be addressed. But the building was slow to start.
At the time, Mayorkas had authorized the Department of Defense to terminate all projects funded with $10.5 billion that former President Donald Trump had redirected from the Pentagon. Just $2 billion of the $10.5 billion was unspent, and that balance was returned.
An additional $5 billion on top of the $10.5 billion came from Congress and was specifically for border infrastructure.
What was left of the $5 billion has gone toward filling select gaps. The money will also go toward installing gates that allow vehicles through, finishing or installing drainage systems, completing permanent erosion control and slope stabilization measures, creating roads along the border, and clearing away unused materials.
The Biden administration has also begun quietly filling in small portions of unfenced areas on the southern border where it had abruptly halted Trump-era projects after the president waged a campaign condemning the idea of a wall.
In July, DHS told the Washington Examiner that it was halfway through filling in 129 gaps in border wall projects after Biden had abruptly halted the remaining 300 miles of Trump-era wall construction when he took office in January 2021.
A DHS spokesperson pushed back on the Texas wall announcement and blamed Congress for leaving it no choice but to waste the money or spend it.
“The construction project you’re reading about today was appropriated during the prior administration, in 2019, and the government is legally required to utilize these funds for their appropriated purpose,” the DHS spokesperson said. “The administration repeatedly called on Congress to cancel or reappropriate remaining border barrier funding and instead fund smarter border security measures, like border technology and modernization of land ports of entry, that are proven to be more effective at improving safety and security at the border.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended the Biden administration with the same argument during a press conference Thursday.
“We are following the law here. It’s as simple as that,” Jean-Pierre said.
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Dozens of gaps have been filled across Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas, where more than 450 miles of 18- and 30-foot slatted steel wall were installed by Trump. But despite such efforts, much of the 2,000-mile boundary is wide open.
Images below from CBP show the location of the new wall.
