I’m sure everyone was surprised on Thursday when the Biden administration waved more than a dozen federal laws in order to allow for the construction of more border wall along the southern border with Texas.
It’s true that Democrats were once all for a border wall, but that was before Trump made building a border wall a key issue of his 2016 presidential campaign. Once that happened, border walls were deemed evil, racist, xenophobic, and ineffective. None of those are true, of course, but Trump was clearly serious about building a wall, not just talking about building one, so the Democrats had be against it. That’s the position they’ve taken ever since. Trump managed to get roughly 450 miles of border wall constructed. Unfortunately, it was something Biden had no intention of continuing. In fact, Biden specifically vowed, “There will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration.”
So, it was perfectly natural to be flabbergasted when the Department of Homeland Security announced plans to build more border wall in areas deemed “high illegal entry.”
“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,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.
Related: White House In FULL PANIC MODE Over Border Crisis
This stunning reversal is not only an admission that there’s a crisis at the border, but that, contrary to what Joe Biden has said in the past, border walls do work.
Except that Biden not only still doesn’t think they work, but claimed there was little he could do about border wall construction.
“I’ll answer one question on the border wall, the border wall where money was appropriated for the border wall. I tried to get them to reappropriate, to redirect that money,” Biden said Thursday. “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.”
“Do you believe the border wall works?”
BIDEN: “No” pic.twitter.com/ND479ZM2SA
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 5, 2023
Biden on declaring an “immediate need” for new border wall construction in south Texas:
“The money was appropriated for the border wall. I tried to get them to re-direct that money … I can’t stop that” pic.twitter.com/VKCTZh8vC1
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 5, 2023
Well, that’s hogwash. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Biden did not have the constitutional authority to “forgive” student loan debt, and yet he has since found a way to cancel $127 billion in student debt for 3.6 million borrowers. If Biden wanted to stop the border wall construction, he would find a way.
So, what’s really happening?
The fact is that the Biden administration is getting criticized by fellow Democrats in sanctuary cities and states that are getting bombarded with illegal immigrants that they don’t have the resources to handle. And then there’s the increase in crime. Meanwhile, recent polling shows that the issue of immigration is a big, big problem for Joe Biden. Voters want border security and overwhelmingly trust Republicans on the issue, not Democrats. A Harvard-Harris poll also found that a majority of voters believe the southern border is ”largely open and laws are unenforced.” A whopping 71% say that illegal immigration is getting worse under Biden—including 74% of independents.
Make no mistake about it: The Biden administration isn’t becoming hawkish on border security. The Biden administration is trying to solve a political problem. They’re letting border wall construction happen to appear proactive, even if reluctantly, about the border crisis that they have long maintained isn’t happening.
Let’s not pretend that the Biden administration is about to get real serious about border security. This is all happening to help Biden’s 2024 campaign.