On January 20, 2021—the day he took office—Joe Biden released an official proclamation declaring the end of the national emergency at our southern border and the end of border wall construction.
Biden said “building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution. It is a waste of money that diverts attention from genuine threats to our homeland security.
Nearly three years and 8 million illegal immigrants later, Biden appears to have dramatically reversed his stance and is reportedly picking up where former President Donald Trump left off.
The Biden regime announced on Thursday that it has waived “certain laws, regulations, and other legal requirements” in order to expedite the construction of barriers” along the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, much like former President Donald Trump did during his presidency in order to build the wall.
The Department of Homeland Security posted the announcement on the U.S. Federal Registry outlining the border wall construction in the Rio Grande Valley sector which is currently seeing “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,” the DHS notice says.
“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,” DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.
Therefore, I must use my authority under section 102 of IIRIRA to install additional physical barriers and roads in the Rio Grande Valley Sector. Therefore, DHS will take immediate action to construct barriers and roads. Construction will be funded by a fiscal year 2019 appropriation through which Congress appropriated funds for the construction border barrier in the Rio Grande Valley, and DHS is required to use those funds for their appropriated purpose.
The construction will reportedly add up to an additional 20 miles to the existing border wall in the area.
In a statement, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection claimed that the waiver doesn’t violate Biden’s 2021 proclamation.
“Congress appropriated fiscal year 2019 funds for the construction of border barrier in the Rio Grande Valley, and DHS is required to use those funds for their appropriated purpose,” the CBP spokesperson said.
“CBP remains committed to protecting the nation’s cultural and natural resources and will implement sound environmental practices as part of the project covered by this waiver,” the spokesperson added.
The environmental laws being bypassed include the Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and Endangered Species Act.
Environmentalists are already raising concerns.
“A border wall is a 14th century solution to a 21st century problem. It will not bolster border security in Starr County,” U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar said in a statement. “I continue to stand against the wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars on an ineffective border wall.”
“A plan to build a wall through will bulldoze an impermeable barrier straight through the heart of that habitat,” Laiken Jordahl, a southwest conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, said Wednesday. “It will stop wildlife migrations dead in their tracks. It will destroy a huge amount of wildlife refuge land. And it’s a horrific step backward for the borderlands.”
Former U.S. Rep. and failed presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke vented on X about the Biden regime’s decision to waive environmental laws to construct more border wall.
1. Walls don’t work
2. President Biden promised he wouldn’t build them
3. Now even harder for voters to distinguish between him & Trump on border/immigration
4. Wasted opportunity to use executive power to actually fix our asylum system instead of impotent political posturing https://t.co/AQkxokNd2a
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) October 5, 2023
Not mentioned by activists is the enormous amount of trash and environmental damage left in the migrants’ wake.
“The sheer quantity of illegal migrants results in destroyed vegetation, and desert areas become dumping grounds,” Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ariz.) said in March of 2021. “Between 2007 and 2018, border agents and other organizations collected 460,000 pounds of trash discarded by illegal migrants along the 370 miles of the Arizona-Mexico border.”
Based on past cleanups, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality estimates that each border crosser leaves “approximately six to eight pounds of trash in the desert during their journey.” It doesn’t take a mathematician to look at the surge in numbers we’re seeing right now and quickly calculate how much waste is being left behind in delicate habitats.
This trash includes human waste, backpacks, medical products, plastic, vehicles, and clothing, all of which pose risks to wildlife, including several endangered species, that live in border regions. Rep. Bruce Westerman personally saw this issue in 2018 when he traveled to the border and spoke with the men and women working to prevent illegal crossings and keep both wildlife and the families living in border zones safe.
Video from earlier in the week in #Brownsville showing a large debris field of wet clothing & trash left along the Rio Grande River by illegal immigrants crossing between the ports of entry, discarding their wet clothes & trash, resulting in a significant ecological issue that… pic.twitter.com/wQ9x1G4MjL
— Chris Olivarez (@LtChrisOlivarez) May 6, 2023
Good morning from #EaglePass! I explain & describe the real environmental issues caused by illegal immigrants who discard trash, used hygiene products, & other items as they cross the Rio Grande.
The State of #Texas will maintain border operations & continue fortifying… pic.twitter.com/TCe9zPUv08
— Chris Olivarez (@LtChrisOlivarez) July 25, 2023
Starr County, where the renewed border wall construction will take place, is home to about 65,000 residents spread over about 1,200 square miles that includes ranchland and part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
The Biden regime officials have insisted for years that the border was secure.
Biden says the border is "safe and orderly and humane."
Kamala says it's "secure."
Mayorkas says it's "a model approach that has proven to work."
Jean-Pierre says it's "safe" and "orderly."
They are all shameless liars. pic.twitter.com/XHPh0DD5NB
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 27, 2023
White House Press Secretary was unable to explain what happened between January of 2021 and the Biden regime’s decision to restart construction on the border wall.
Karine Jean-Pierre is having a very difficult time explaining the Biden administration's flip-flop on a border wall pic.twitter.com/8EUAVqCoa0
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 5, 2023
The reversal comes after multiple Democrat office-holders, including Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, NYC Mayor Eric Adams, and NY Gov. Kathy Hochul publicly criticized the Biden regime’s lax border policies.
Update.
Mayorkas on Friday announced that there are actually no plans to build a wall in the Rio Grande Valley sector in Texas.
“From day 1, this administration has made clear that a border wall is not the answer. That remains our position and our position has never wavered.”
NEW: After quite literally saying there is an "immediate need to construct physical barriers" at the southern border, DHS Secretary Mayorkas says we are all taking him out of context.
The utter incompetence by this administration is astounding.
In an attempt to gaslight the… pic.twitter.com/9X3Xy73DfD
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 6, 2023
They can get back to building the wall, and I hope they do but I fear it is all talk for the next election. There are no coincidences.
A few questions:
Another reason why we know Republicans aren’t concerned about the illegals is that they keep funding the DHS.
Wasn’t the whole point of no wall building was to get rid of the border and any meaningful immigration “policy” in the first place? The 8MM immigrants will soon be voters and should be enough to create enough chaos and crime to flip some red and purple states … Is Biden abandoning his base???