Homeland security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday walked again feedback the Biden administration made this week indicating the necessity to waive dozens of federal legal guidelines to construct a border wall in South Texas.
“I wish to tackle the studies issued at this time concerning the border wall and be utterly clear,” he mentioned in an announcement. “There isn’t any new administration coverage concerning border partitions. From day one, this administration has made it clear {that a} border wall shouldn’t be the reply.”
The border wall is rising as a flashpoint between the GOP and the Biden administration as migrant numbers rise once more
Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday clarified the announcement made the day gone by concerning the border wall. (Getty Pictures/File)
He added, “That is our place and our place has by no means wavered.” “The language within the Federal Register discover is taken out of context and doesn’t point out any change in coverage in any respect.”
Mayorkas’ feedback got here a day after the Division of Homeland Safety revealed an announcement in US Federal Register Which identifies building in Starr County within the Rio Grande Valley sector, the place the division says there’s a “excessive price of unlawful entry.”
The company says there have been greater than 245,000 migrant encounters on this sector throughout this fiscal 12 months.
Within the Federal Register announcement, Mayorkas mentioned he’s utilizing his congressionally granted authority to waive 26 federal legal guidelines, together with the Clear Air Act, the Protected Consuming Water Act and the Endangered Species Act.
“There may be presently a essential and quick must assemble bodily obstacles and roads close to the U.S. border with a purpose to stop unlawful entry into the USA within the venture areas pursuant to Sections 102(a) and 102(b),” Mayorkas mentioned. Immigrants of 1996).
Upon taking workplace, President Biden halted building of a brand new border wall as a part of a promise he made throughout the presidential marketing campaign. The administration mentioned that constructing the wall throughout the Trump administration was “only one instance of the earlier administration’s misplaced priorities and failure to handle immigration in a secure, orderly, and humane method.”
The Federal Register announcement comes because the Biden administration faces a brand new wave of unlawful immigration, which has led to a report rise in migrant encounters on the southern border. This inflow precipitated a pointy political division, amid criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike.
Customs and Border Safety sources Fox Information mentioned final week that there have been greater than 260,000 encounters in September, the best month-to-month whole on report.
Migrants stand on the Mexican facet of the US-Mexico border on the banks of the Rio Grande in Ciudad Juarez on March 29, 2023. (AP Picture/Fernando Llano)
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Republicans blamed the surge on a rollback of Trump-era border insurance policies and a halt to frame wall building. Biden has additionally been criticized for submitting a lawsuit towards Texas over floating obstacles on the Rio Grande River.
“President Trump “He is all the time proper,” the Trump marketing campaign beforehand mentioned in an announcement to Fox Information Digital. “That is why he constructed practically 500 miles of robust new border wall that would have been completed by now. As a substitute, criminal Joe Biden has turned our nation into a large haven for harmful felony aliens,” she added.
Fox Information Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed to this report.