Biden in back-down on border wall vow
Mexico calls it a ‘step backwards’ as migrants continue to cross
US President Joe Biden has changed course on building a border wall as the US struggles to cope with a surge in migrant arrivals.
Up to 32km of barrier will be built in Starr County, Texas, despite campaign pledges from the president not to erect another foot of wall along the border with Mexico.
Democrats had been fiercely critical of former president Donald Trump’s use of executive powers to build a barrier on the southern border. But now Biden is using the same powers to try to staunch the flow of migrants along a section of the frontier which, according to official data, has seen 245,000 illegal entries in the past year.
When asked if he thought such walls work, Biden said flatly, “No.”
He has waived 26 federal laws in Texas to permit the building of additional border barriers in the Rio Grande Valley, using funds secured during the Trump presidency.
The wall will be built in sparsely populated ranch land between Zapata and McAllen, the Texas town that has borne much of the brunt of the immigration surge.
Trump was quick to claim victory and demand an apology.
“As I have stated often, over thousands of years, there are only two things that have consistently worked, wheels, and walls!” he wrote on social media. “Will Joe Biden apologise to me and America for taking so long to get moving . . .”
The move comes as officials in Democrat-controlled Chicago and New York have admitted they are unable to cope with the rising numbers of migrants arriving in their cities.
Biden is also under pressure from voters to act, with a Washington Post – ABC poll last week showing 62 per cent of Americans disapprove of his handling of the southern border crisis.
It is estimated 740km of wall had been built along the 3140km USMexico border when Biden took office. According to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico’s president, 10,000 people a day arrived at the border last week.
He yesterday called the Biden administration’s move a “step backwards”. “It does not resolve the problem,” he said.
Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis, the Republican governors of Texas and
Florida have also made political capital out of the crisis, shipping migrants to Democrat-run cities to the north.
And the pressure is starting to tell with Brandon Johnson and Eric Adams, the mayors of Chicago and
New York visiting the border.
Adams has embarked on a fourday Latin America tour in which he will try to dissuade immigrants from coming to New York.
He has also asked Biden to declare
a state of emergency in the city, which would enable him to lift the “right to shelter” mandate, obliging New York to provide accommodation to homeless families with children.
Nevertheless, the president’s