(TheConservativeTimes.org) – On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced that it is waiving 26 federal laws to allow border wall construction in South Texas, using sweeping executive power for the first time, CBS News reported.
The Department of Homeland Security posted an outline on the US Federal Registry for construction in Starr County, Texas, an area where the US Border Patrol has seen “high illegal entry.”
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in the notice that there is currently an “acute and immediate need” to build barriers to “protect unlawful entries.”
The announcement came as a surprise to many, particularly given President Biden’s insistence that no border wall would be constructed as long as he is president.
On Thursday, Mayorkas insisted that the DHS notice had been “taken out of context” and it did not “signify any change in policy whatsoever.”
When speaking with reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, the president said while he did not want to build a border wall, his hands were tied by a law passed by Congress in 2019 to appropriate money for the wall.
Asked if he believes walls work, Biden said, “No.”
The ongoing border crisis and the transfer of thousands of migrants into Democrat-led cities have prompted even some Democrat officials, like New York City Mayor Eric Adams, to demand action from the Biden administration.
Republicans have long fought against the administration’s failure to secure the border.
In recent months Republicans have blasted the president’s open borders policy for creating what they described as “the largest child trafficking ring in US history.”
Missouri Senator Josh Hawley accused the administration of letting “tens of thousands of children be sold into slavery” while doing nothing about it.
US Customs and Border Protection said nearly 400,000 unaccompanied minors have crossed the southern border in the last three fiscal years.
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