U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has cited an “acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads” along the U.S.-Mexico border in South Texas.
DHS is waiving 26 federal laws to allow for the construction of border walls along the Rio Grande in Starr County.
There have been nearly 300,000 encounters with illegal border crossers in the Rio Grande Valley sector, where the new wall will be built, in this federal fiscal year alone.
When President Joe Biden took office in January of 2021, he signed an executive order that paused all border wall construction. During his presidential campaign, he promised that there would “not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration.”
However, as the border crisis intensifies and he faces backlash from across the political spectrum, the Biden administration has reversed course.
Former President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, “So interesting to watch Crooked Joe Biden break every environmental law in the book to prove that I was right when I built 560 miles… of brand new, beautiful border wall.”
“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 illegal immigrants from places unknown,” asked Trump. “I will await his apology!”
Since Biden assumed office in 2021, there have been nearly 7 million encounters with illegal border crossers and an unknown number of gotaways who evaded capture.
“After years of leaving our border wide open and instituting illegal parole programs to ensure that millions of illegal aliens flow across our southern border, one cannot help but conclude that the announcement of the resumption of border wall construction is a hollow political gesture,” Chris Russo, President of Texans for Strong Borders, told Texas Scorecard. “A border wall is a necessary part of border security, but barriers alone are not sufficient to end the invasion at the Texas Border.”
Both lawmakers and border security advocates are calling on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to take more aggressive measures and have the Texas Legislature create new laws and programs allowing Texas to better address the invasion.
A third legislative special session has been scheduled to begin on October 9, and is expected to include border security measures. The specific agenda has yet to be announced.
