Biden attacked from both sides over new Texas border wall
President Joe Biden is under fire from both Republicans and Democrats after his administration announced new border wall construction in Texas.
Mr Biden has said he “had no choice” because the funding was signed off while Donald Trump was president.
Members of his Democratic Party said walls did not work, while rival Republicans accused him of hypocrisy.
Some 20 miles (32km) of barriers will be built in a sparsely populated stretch of the Rio Grande Valley.
While campaigning for president in 2020, Mr Biden promised he would not build another foot of wall if elected. He said it was “not a serious policy solution”.
But on Wednesday, his administration used its sweeping executive powers to waive more than two dozen federal laws, including some that are designed to protect wildlife, to allow more barriers to be built along the US-Mexico border in southern Texas.
In a notice announcing these waivers, Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, said there was an “acute and immediate need” for the construction.
It prompted swift criticism from both major parties as well as from environmental activists and human rights groups.
Mr Mayorkas said the Biden administration was required under law to use the money Congress allocated in 2019 for border barriers.
“I tried to get them to redirect that money. They didn’t, they wouldn’t,” Mr Biden said. “I can’t stop that.”
On Friday, Mr Biden again said that he was “told I had no choice” but to move ahead on the wall’s construction.
Jonathan Entin, a law and political science professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, told the BBC that while Mr Biden is “legally correct” in his argument about the budget, he was under no obligation to waive the federal laws that make construction of the border barrier possible.
“It’s politically advantageous to him,” Mr Entin said. “He will take a certain amount of heat from his supporters in the Democratic Party, and being able to say he doesn’t have legal discretion might give him some excuse or explanation.”
On the other hand, Mr Entin said that by waiving the federal requirements, Mr Biden can signal to his detractors that he is “serious” about border security, contrary to what Republican lawmakers have alleged.
Mr Entin’s assessment was echoed by Tony Payan, the director of the Centre for the United States and Mexico at Rice University’s Baker Institute in Texas.
“The Biden administration has managed to drag its feet on a number of issues that have to do with a wall, even if the money was there,” he said. “He doesn’t have to spend it, at least not now.”
In his remarks, Mr Biden repeated that he did not think border walls were effective.
In a later statement, Mr Mayorkas rejected the claim that the administration had changed its border policy by signing off on the new construction.
“This administration has made clear that a border wall is not the answer,” he said. “That remains our position and our position has never wavered.”
But the comments did little to stem the criticism from all sides.
On Thursday, the administration also announced that it would resume deportations of illegal Venezuelan migrants, about 50,000 of who arrived at the US-Mexico border in September alone.
