(HorizonPost.com) – Last week, the Biden administration announced that it would waive more than twenty federal laws to allow for the construction of a border wall in South Texas, CBS News reported.
In a notice posted on the US Federal Registry on Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced border wall construction in Starr County, Texas, an area in which the US Border Patrol has seen “high illegal entry.”
In the notice, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said there is an “acute and immediate need” to build barriers to “protect unlawful entries.”
Faced with growing criticism from the President’s Democrat allies, on Thursday, Secretary Mayorkas defended the decision.
Mayorkas disputed the claims that the Biden administration had changed its policy on the construction of a border wall, arguing in a statement that the administration has been consistent in saying that constructing a wall “is not the answer.” He insisted that this remains the position of the administration.
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Mayorkas said that the construction notice had been “taken out of context” and did not “signify any change in policy whatsoever.”
The secretary said the administration had no choice but to use the money Congress allocated in 2019 for border wall construction and insisted that the administration was “compelled to follow the law.”
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, President Biden echoed Mayorkas’ statement, saying he did not want to construct a border wall but his hands were tied by the 2019 appropriations from Congress.
The president insisted that he tried to “reappropriate” the funding allocated for a border wall but Congress wouldn’t do it and said there was no mechanism in the law for him to reappropriate money after Congress had allocated it for the wall.
“I can’t stop that,” Biden added.
When asked if he thought walls work, the president said, “No.”
Copyright 2023, HorizonPost.com
