Rep. Ilhan Omar slammed President Joe Biden and his administration for reported plans to resume construction on the southern border wall to fill current “gaps.”
“It’s shameful and unacceptable for @POTUS to continue the construction of Trump’s xenophobic and racist wall,” Omar tweeted on Wednesday.
It’s shameful and unacceptable for @POTUS to continue the construction of Trump’s xenophobic and racist wall.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) April 7, 2021
Her tweet comes after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas reportedly told department employees last week that construction might ramp up again to fill the current gaps in the wall.
Mayorkas said that though the president stopped Pentagon funds from going to the wall and ended former President Donald Trump’s border emergency designation, “that leaves room to make decisions” on finishing some “gaps in the wall.”
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION MAY RESUME BORDER CONSTRUCTION TO FILL ‘GAPS’ AMID BORDER CRISIS
Customs and Border Protection reportedly also submitted a plan on the wall to administration officials.
“It’s not a single answer to a single question. There are different projects that the chief of the Border Patrol has presented and the acting commissioner of CBP presented to me,” Mayorkas said.
“The president has communicated quite clearly his decision that the emergency that triggered the devotion of DOD funds to the construction of the border wall is ended. But that leaves room to make decisions as the administration, as part of the administration, in particular areas of the wall that need renovation, particular projects that need to be finished,” he said.
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White House press secretary Jen Psaki was questioned about the plan on Wednesday, and she said any possible construction would be done out of a legal obligation due to funding that has already been allocated.
“Wall construction remains paused to the extent permitted by law. So some has already been funded through a congressional authorization and funding allocation. But as agencies develop for a plan — it’s paused while agencies are developing a plan for the president on the management of the federal funds,” she said.
