US: Biden to follow Trump's policy, will build new border wall

In a reversal in strategy for President Joe Biden’s administration, the government announced on Thursday that the United States will construct extra sections of border wall and roadways in a Texas county that has seen a lot of migrants entering the country from Mexico.

According to a notice in the Federal Register, the Department of Homeland Security said it needed to waive a variety of laws, rules, and other legal criteria “to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads in proximity to the international land border in Starr County, Texas.”

The decision represents a change in the Biden administration’s stance on the construction of actual walls and other barriers, one of former Republican President Donald Trump’s top demands and the refrain of his campaign rallies, “Build That Wall.”

As one of his first official acts, Biden declared that “no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall” and ordered a review of all funds already allocated.

With border issues looming large in the upcoming general election, Biden, a Democrat, and Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential candidate, may square off once more.

After falling in mid-May when the Biden administration implemented tighter new asylum criteria, the number of migrants apprehended trying to enter the country illegally or presenting themselves at legitimate border crossings has gradually increased.

After the announcement, migrant numbers initially decreased, but recently started to increase as thousands of migrants—many of whom were escaping Venezuela—made their way through south and central America.

According to Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, more than 245,000 persons have been stopped by the U.S. Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley Sector during the current fiscal year.

According to him, funding for border barrier construction in fiscal year 2019 will be used to pay for the construction projects.

“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.

Mayorkas’ declaration drew no immediate response from the White House, but Trump quickly declared 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?

Cities in the north and at the border of the United States have been stretched by the rise of migrants. Several thousand migrants are said to have arrived in recent days, prompting the mayor of Eagle Pass, Texas, to proclaim a state of emergency last month owing to a “severe undocumented immigrant surge” into the area.

Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, set out on a tour to Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador on Thursday to tell prospective immigrants that his city is unable to take them in.

(With agency inputs)