US President Joe Biden’s administration reportedly approved construction of U.S.-Mexico border near Yuma, Arizona.
The approval was reportedly done “quietly” after the president previously admonished former US President Donald Trump over the wall and his immigration policies.
In 2020, Joe Biden blasted Trump’s construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall during his presidential campaign.
“Not another foot.” Biden claimed.
“There will not be another foot of wall constructed under my administration, No. 1. I’m going to make sure that we have border protection, but it’s going to be based on making sure that we use high-tech capacity to deal with it. And at the ports of entry — that’s where all the bad stuff is happening,” Biden said at that time.
However, on Thursday, the President approved a plan to complete a section of the border wall near Yuma, Arizona which includes the “filling four major gaps in the wall that continue to allow the Yuma area to be one of the busiest corridors for illegal immigration crossings,” as per Fox News report.
The agency claimed that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas authorized the new plan to “deploy modern, effective border measures” and improve “safety and security along the Southwest Border,” which was started by the Trump’s administration.
According to the reports, the Homeland Security’s 2021 budget will fund the project but was also initially planned to be funded by the Defense Department.
From January to June this year, patrol agents have already stopped illegal immigrants over 160,000 times in the sector.
Moreover, the president’s decision came after Sen. Mark Kelly, D-AZ and other Republican lawmakers called for Biden to secure the border.
Biden’s decision also came following his recent remarks, criticizing Trump, his border wall, and his immigration policies, calling him “xenophobic” and “racist.”
In an op-ed released by Miami Herald, Biden wrote that the slogan “build the wall was divorced from reality and a wall won’t stop the flow of illegal narcotics or human trafficking, both of which come primarily through legal ports of entry.”
“Nor will it stem the numbers of undocumented, most of whom over-stay legal visas,” Biden added.
