Biden shuns Trump’s border wall but claims he can’t stop it from being built
President Joe Biden said he does not believe the border wall works – but claimed he can do nothing to stop new sections of it from being built.
Biden blamed Congress for appropriating money toward constructing more of the barrier between the US and Mexico, a signature part of his predecessor Donald Trump’s presidency. But Biden’s own administration waived 26 federal laws to restart the build amid an influx of migrants crossing illegally.
A notice posted on the Federal Registrar on Wednesday stated that the new construction will be covered by funds that were already earmarked for wall.
On Thursday, Biden told reporters in the Oval Office that his hands are tied.
‘The money was appropriated for the border wall. I tried to get them to reappropriate it, to redirect that money. They didn’t, they wouldn’t,’ Biden said of Congress.
‘And in the meantime, there’s nothing under the law other than they have to use the money for what it was appropriated. I can’t stop that.’
Biden was then asked if he believes the border wall is effective, to which he replied: ‘No.’
The president’s remarks ran counter to his Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ statements the prior day in a document on expanding the wall.
‘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,’ wrote Mayorkas.
‘The United States Border Patrol’s (Border Patrol) Rio Grande Valley Sector is an area of “high illegal entry.”
‘Therefore, I must use my authority… to install additional physical barriers and roads in the Rio Grande Valley Sector.’
The border wall was one of Trump’s major campaign promises and his pet project.
Trump quickly claimed victory on the issue and demanded an apology from his successor.
‘As I have stated often, over thousands of years, there are only two things that have consistently worked, wheels, and walls!’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
‘Will Joe Biden apologize to me and America for taking so long to get moving, and allowing our country to be flooded with 15 million illegals immigrants, from places unknown. I will await his apology!’
Biden as a presidential candidate in 2020 vowed that ‘there will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration’.
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