In a major reversal, President Joe Biden decided to waive 26 federal laws to construct an additional 20 miles of border wall in South Texas. 

Summary

In a major reversal, President Joe Biden decided to waive 26 federal laws to construct an additional 20 miles of border wall in South Texas. Biden spent the 2020 campaign mocking former President Donald Trump’s border wall, but the migrant crisis at the southern border has forced him to backtrack.

• The new border wall will be built in Starr County, Texas, an area that Border Patrol officials have said sees “high illegal entry.” Approximately 245,000 illegal entries have been recorded in that region alone so far this year.
• Even though his administration is now building a border wall, Biden still answered “No” when asked if he thought border walls actually work. Biden insists he is “required” to spend the money as it had already been appropriated in 2019 and the law stipulates that construction must be completed by 2023.
• In addition to the wall, the Biden administration also plans to resume deportations of illegal immigrants from Venezuela, which constitutes the largest group of migrants that Border Patrol encounters. 
• Biden vowed he would not build “another foot” of border wall during the 2020 election campaign – instead, he’s going to build 105,600 more feet of wall. All the same, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas insists the administration’s policy has not changed.
• Mayorkas said in a statement that “no new Administration policy with respect to border walls. From day one, this Administration has made clear that a border wall is not the answer.” Except, it seems, for when it is the answer.

• The New York Times called the policy shifts “an about-face by the White House”  that “underlined the challenges Mr. Biden and his administration were wrestling with, as humanitarian crises around the world drive more migrants to the U.S. border while a deeply divided Congress leaves in place an outdated, dysfunctional immigration system.”
• CNN traced the root of Democrats’ immigration contortions to border-state governors’ decision to bus migrants to blue cities and nationalize the migrant crisis. “Immigration reality is scrambling the normal immigration rhetoric in uncomfortable ways for Democrats, who generally want to appear welcoming but appear to be taking a harder line along with their new positions.”
• Axios covered Trump’s response to Biden’s “major reversal.” Trump posted on Truth Social that Biden’s flip-flops shows “that I was right” to build a border wall. Trump concluded, “I will await his apology!”

• Biden’s flip-flop has not been well received by the left flank of his party. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) demanded the president “reverse the course” from this “cruel policy,” the New York Post reported. She blasted the Biden administration’s excuse that they were “required” to do this, and argued they were not “required” to either continue construction or waive environmental laws.
• The Editors of National Review mocked the decision to build only 20 more miles as a “joke.” They reminded readers that “The White House remains an enemy of good order at the border. The real record of the Biden White House is one of facilitating millions of illegal entries into the United States; 3.8 million have entered the U.S. since he took office. About half that number are completely off the radar.”
• The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board blasted the “phony war” Democrats are waging on immigration. “Each of these Democrats knows, or at least should, that the main obstacle to reforming asylum policy now is in their own party. Republicans would happily reform the asylum law but can’t without Democratic support—and that means leadership from the White House. Border enforcement is the duty of the federal government, and Mr. Biden has considered nearly every solution except the asylum changes that might actually work.”

Return to Freespoke

© Dominic Moore, 2023