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News > U.S.

Biden Administration to Restart Building US-Mexico Border Wall

  • What happened to “The wall is racist?

    What happened to “The wall is racist?" Biden administration to resume construction on 13.4 ml of border wall in the Rio Grande Valley after pressure from local residents & politicians... | Photo: Twitter @VeBo1991

Published 13 May 2021
Opinion

President Biden had earlier decreed that work on the Congress-funded wall should cease as part of his flurry of executive orders after taking office on 20 January. This order included ending Trump's agreement with Mexico to accommodate asylum-seekers south of the border until their scheduled hearings came up.

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration will restart the construction of his predecessor Donald Trump's border wall. A report by Fox News on Thursday revealed that the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) would resume building a 13.4-mile stretch of the levee in the Rio Grande Valley in Hidalgo County, Texas. This announcement comes after pressure from residents and politicians demanding the flood of illegal immigrants crossing the border be stopped.

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​The USACE stressed that the construction was on the river levee, not the wall itself — but conceded the work was being done to "support" the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency's infrastructure program.

​"Wall construction remains paused to the extent permitted by law. Per DHS, we’ve started critical work to repair the Rio Grande Valley’s flood levee, which was excavated to make way for the border wall. This remediation work will not involve expanding border barrier", the corps claimed.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the work was intended to "protect border communities from physical dangers resulting from the previous administration’s approach to border wall construction", which it said threatened the area with "catastrophic flooding".

But just a month earlier, investigative journalists with Project Veritas exposed how dozens of illegal immigrants, including many children, were being kept in open-air, dirt-floored pens under a road bridge outside McAllen, Hidalgo County's largest city.

Early after taking office on January 20, Biden decreed that work on the Congress-funded wall should cease as part of his flurry of executive orders, which included ending Trump's agreement with Mexico to accommodate asylum-seekers south of the border until their scheduled hearings came up.

Last Wednesday Mexican troops were spotted on the south bank of the Rio Grande near Del Rio, Texas, detaining those trying to cross illegally. Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano — a Democrat — told Fox and Friends the same day that he was exasperated by his party's downplaying of the crisis, which has seen a nearly five-fold increase in undocumented arrivals.

"They keep telling us that the border is under control and I simply do not understand how with a 392 percent increase this fiscal year alone", Lozano said. "Last year, we had 19,724 captures at this point. And right now we're at 97,398. I simply do not understand how that's under control".

20 Republican state governors, including Texas' Greg Abbott, signed a letter to Biden on Tuesday urging him to act on the migrant crisis. "Contrary to statements from your Administration, the border is neither closed nor secure", they wrote. "The crisis is too big to ignore and is now spilling over the border states into all of our states".

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