Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas quietly announced late Wednesday that 20 miles of wall will be built in the Rio Grande Valley in Southeast Texas.
The Biden administration has fast tracked plans to resume building a barrier along the US-Mexico border, in an admission of the severity of the migrant crisis.
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas quietly announced late Wednesday that 20 miles of wall will be built in the Rio Grande Valley in Southeast Texas, citing an “acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers” to prevent more people from entering the country illegally.
“The United States Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector is an area of ‘high illegal entry,’ ” said Mayorkas. “Therefore, I must use my authority . . . to install additional physical barriers and roads in the Rio Grande Valley Sector.”
Biden repeatedly voiced his opposition to the wall while running in 2020, saying: “There will not be another foot of wall construction in my administration.”
After taking office in 2021, he called building a wall a “waste of money” in an executive order, and he doubled down Thursday by replying “no” when asked by reporters if he thought the wall was effective — despite the fact that the Department of Homeland Security signed off last year on closing four gaps in the border wall near Yuma, Ariz., which had also seen large flows of migrants, as well as replacing a deteriorated section of barrier near San Diego.
This week’s announcement was made notably by Mayorkas, waiving no fewer than 26 federal laws, including the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Air Act to expedite construction.
The document signed by Mayorkas noted the Rio Grande Valley border sector — one of nine along the southern border — has seen 245,000 people attempt to sneak over the border in the 2023 fiscal year, which ended Sept.
