UPDATED 3:52 P.M.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden said on Thursday he can’t stop federal funds from being used to build sections of a U.S.-Mexico border wall after Congress appropriated the money, adding that he still does not think such a barrier works.
Biden said he tried to get Congress to reallocate the funds for the barriers touted by his predecessor but that he could not by law redirect the money.
“I can’t stop that,” he said. Asked if a border wall works, he told reporters, “No.”
The move to build additional sections of the wall is a shift for Biden, who campaigned against the policy embraced by Republican former U.S. President Donald Trump. Both are seeking the presidency in 2024.
The new construction would build barriers and roads in a part of Texas that has seen large numbers of migrants crossing from Mexico.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose; writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States will build additional sections of border wall and roads in a Texas county that has seen a large number of migrants crossing from Mexico, the government said on Thursday, in a policy shift for the administration of President Joe Biden.
The Department of Homeland Security said it needed to waive a number of laws, regulations and other legal requirements “to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads in the vicinity of the international land border in Starr County, Texas,” according to a post in the Federal Register.
The move reflects a shift of Biden administration policy on physical wall barriers, one of former Republican President Donald Trump’s signature priorities and accompanying rally chant, “Build That Wall.”
One of Biden’s first actions in office was to issue a proclamation that “no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall” as well as a review of all resources that had already been committed.
Biden, a Democrat, and Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, may face off again in the next general election with border issues looming large.
The number of migrants caught crossing illegally or presenting themselves at legal border crossings has steadily risen after dropping in mid-May when the Biden administration rolled out stricter new asylum rules.
Migrant numbers had initially plummeted after the announcement, but in recent weeks began rising again as thousands of migrants – many fleeing Venezuela – making their way through south and central America began arriving at the border.
The U.S. Border Patrol has encountered more than 245,000 people entering the United States in the Rio Grande Valley Sector in the current fiscal year, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in the federal register post.
The building projects will be funded by a fiscal year 2019 appropriation for border barrier construction, he said.
“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,” Mayorkas said.
The White House had no immediate comment on Mayorkas’ announcement, but Trump was quick to claim victory.
“As I have stated often, over thousands of years, there are only two things that have consistently worked, wheels, and walls!” Trump wrote in a social media post. “Will Joe Biden apologize to me and America for taking so long to get moving” on a barrier?
The increase of migrants has strained U.S. cities at the border and farther north. The mayor of Eagle Pass, Texas, declared a state of emergency last month due to a “severe undocumented immigrant surge” into the city as several thousand migrants reportedly arrived in recent days.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday began a trip to Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador in which he will deliver a message to would-be migrants that his city cannot accommodate them.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Mica Rosenberg; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
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