Despite spending most of his already limited energy criticizing it during the 2020 Presidential campaign, President Biden is now jumping on board. Albeit grudgingly. As announced by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a Federal notice, it’s time for the border wall to be built.
“The United States Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector is an area of ‘high illegal entry…As of early August 2023, Border Patrol had encountered over 245,000 such entrants attempting to enter the United States between ports of entry in the Rio Grande Valley Sector in Fiscal Year 2023. Therefore, I must use my authority under section 102 of [Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996] to install additional physical barriers and roads in the Rio Grande Valley Sector.”
This directly contradicts the previous Biden proclamation just three short years ago. “It is a waste of money that diverts attention from genuine threats to our homeland security… it shall be the policy of my administration that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall.”
With all the objections from the left, President Trump was unable to construct the wall like he wanted to. Only 80 miles of new fence were built, 290 miles were rebuilt or reinforced, and more than 60% of the over 2,000 miles of border is left with no wall or any barrier to entry.
Unlike many other nations, the US has largely rejected the idea of building fences between the US and our neighbors to the south or north. While they have existed in high-traffic areas, they weren’t an absolute need in rural areas. Now as drug traffickers and human smugglers take advantage of these open areas, we are being flooded as a nation.
As thousands pour over daily, the Customs and Border Patrol as well as Immigrations and Customs Enforcement can do little but throw up their hands in frustration. This administration won’t give them the budget or the tools to fix the problem in any way.
