By Regarding at least one important issue facing the United States, Joe Biden and his staff have admitted something unexpected–Donald Trump was right. Presumably, in an attempt to get liberal mayors of big cities like Eric Adams of New York and Brian Johnson of Chicago off his back, the president announced that he is waiving environmental regulations in order to complete Trump’s Wall on the southern border.
In 2020, Joe Biden campaigned on “not building another foot” of the border wall. Now, as hundreds of thousands of migrants come to the United States, sparking emergencies in liberal “sanctuary cities,” the president has changed his mind.
Texas and Florida busing immigrants to blue cities started out as a little joke and has turned into the most successful and transformative conversation-shifting political move in the last 20 years.
— Jarvis (@jarvis_best) October 5, 2023
DeSantis and Abbott’s move may be the most successful political ploy in decades.
The Wall Street Journal reports that in a public notice posted Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security outlined its intent to build up to 20 new miles of Trump administration-era border barriers in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, one of the busiest crossing spots for migrants attempting to enter the U.S.
The decision comes as Republicans nearly shut down the federal government over new border-security measures, including resuming construction of former President Donald Trump’s wall project.
“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,” the notice reads. It added that the administration will waive federal, state and local laws that protect water, air and endangered species to speed up the construction.
The about-face by the administration—which halted all border-wall construction on the first day of Biden’s presidency—shows its increasing desperation to tamp down illegal border crossings, which have surpassed two million for each of the last two years.
The news was welcomed by former President Donald Trump, who asked whether or not Biden would give him an apology. “As I have stated often, over thousands of years, there are only two things that have consistently worked, wheels, and walls! 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.”
Breaking overnight: In a striking reversal, the Biden admin. waived federal laws to allow for new border wall construction.
"There's a direct correlation between 245,000 entrants at the Rio Grande valley, and the announcement of a wall," @jdbalart says. pic.twitter.com/ftBvU0oHPW
— MSNBC Reports (@MSNBC_reports) October 5, 2023
Liberals, of course, who actually believed the border wall was racist rather than just cynically claiming so in front of cameras, like Joe Biden did, are furious.
1. Walls don’t work
2. President Biden promised he wouldn’t build them
3. Now even harder for voters to distinguish between him & Trump on border/immigration
4. Wasted opportunity to use executive power to actually fix our asylum system instead of impotent political posturing https://t.co/AQkxokNd2a
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) October 5, 2023
All I heard from my party for 4 years was that a wall was the most un-American, hateful and stupid idea conjured in the heart of any dictator ever.
And now I'm the patsy who's not supposed to notice that Build Back Better means Build That Wall?
Thank God I'm a masochist.
— Caitlin Flanagan (@CaitlinPacific) October 5, 2023
Environmental groups and supporters of open borders both lambasted the Biden Administration for the move, as well.
“You’re walling off not only people from the river, but wildlife, trying to get away from the river when there’s a flood or getting to the water,” Jim Chapman, the president of Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, an environmental non-profit in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, told NBC News. “That’s basically the only water there is. It’s basically horrible.”
Laiken Jordahl of the Center for Biological Diversity joined in on the bashing too, noting that the Rio Grande River, especially in the National Wildlife Refuge, is “the last ribbon of habitat for a lot of species.”
“Bulldozing a border wall through the heart of that habitat is absolutely devastating,” Jordahl continued. “There’s not a lot of nature left in South Texas.”
NBC News also spoke to Roberto Lopez, an advocate with the Beyond Borders program at the Texas Civil Rights Project. He drew parallels between the Biden administration’s announcement and those of his liberal predecessors.
“President Obama built Bush’s wall and now Biden is building Trump’s,” Lopez said. “In the Rio Grande Valley, it’s been consistent that the federal government has been building border wall over the last several years, and this is just a continuation of those policies.”
Biden tried to deflect from the criticism he received from the left, telling reporters in the White House, “I’ll answer one question on the border wall: The border wall – 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. 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.”
The president has previously stated that he believes walls don’t work and that the border was secure already.
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