On Thursday, the Biden administration announced that U.S. Customs and Border Protection will close four gaps in former President Donald Trump’s US-Mexico border wall. The move comes after Washington, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser officially requested the National Guard to help with the influx of illegal immigrants in the capital city.
In a statement, Biden’s Department of Homeland Security praised Trump’s border wall as a “modern” and “effective” way to improve “safety and security along the Southwest Border” in announcing its new construction.
The gaps are located in the Border Patrol’s Yuma sector, which the DHS said “presents safety and life hazard risks” for illegal immigrants attempting to enter the United States across the Colorado River.
“This area also poses a life and safety risk to first responders and agents responding to incidents in this area,” the statement added.
Biden’s decision to complete portions of Trump’s border wall contradicts promises he made during his presidential campaign. In August 2020, Biden vowed that “not another foot” of Trump’s border wall would be constructed during his administration.
“There will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration,” Biden said at the time.
In 2019, Biden also wrote in an op-ed that Trump’s border wall would not be an effective way to secure the US-Mexico border.
“It’s imperative that we secure our borders, but ‘build the wall‘ is a slogan divorced from reality. It won’t stop the flow of illegal narcotics or human trafficking, both of which come primarily through legal ports of entry,” Biden wrote, according to Politico.
“Nor will it stop asylum seekers fleeing the most desperate conditions imaginable, and who have the right to have their cases heard,” he added. “Nor will it stem the numbers of undocumented, most of whom over-stay legal visas.”
Biden’s sudden interest in filling in the border wall comes as Hispanic support for the president plummets to just 18 percent.
According to a Quinnipiac Poll released last week, just 8 percent of Hispanics “approve strongly” of “the way Joe Biden is handling his job as president,” and another 10 percent “approve somewhat.”
The poll also showed that 69 percent of Hispanics disapprove of Biden’s performance, with 20 percent disapproving somewhat and 49 percent strongly disapproving.
The illegal immigrant crisis continues to worsen nationwide. More than 1.74 million illegal immigrants have already been apprehended at the southwest border so far this year, already topping last year’s all-time record despite three months remaining in this fiscal year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data showed.
