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Washington: In a major backflip, President Joe Biden is set to emulate one of Donald Trump’s signature policies by allowing construction of a border wall to deal with America’s escalating immigration crisis.
Despite coming to office promising not to build a wall at the US-Mexico border, the Biden administration announced overnight it would waive 26 federal laws to enable construction in a section of South Texas with high illegal entries.
A border wall section stands near La Grulla, Texas.Credit: AP
The move comes as the US struggles to cope with the ongoing influx of migrants from South and Central America, which is not only straining border towns but also pushing Democratic cities to breaking point.
New York, for example, has taken in almost 123,000 asylum seekers since spring last year, with many now living in Manhattan hotels that have been converted into emergency accommodation.
But Mayor Eric Adams projects this will cost taxpayers $US12 billion ($18 billion) over three years and has warned that without federal intervention, “this issue will destroy New York City”.
Migrants board a city bus to a shelter intake center after traveling on a bus from Del Rio, Texas, at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York,Credit: Bloomberg
“Let me tell you something New Yorkers, never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to — I don’t see an ending to this,” the mayor said at a town hall gathering last month, in a significant escalation of rhetoric.
Similar concerns have also been raised in cities such as Denver, Chicago and Washington DC which, like New York, have unique laws requiring their cities to give migrants the legal right to shelter.
In Illinois earlier this week, Governor JB Pritzker, a key Biden ally, hit out at the administration for failing to act on what he said had become an “untenable situation” after Texas officials bused more than 15,000 migrants to his state in the past year.
“Unfortunately, the welcome and aid Illinois has been providing to these asylum seekers has not been matched with support by the federal government,” Pritzker wrote in a letter Monday to the president.
Migrants walk past large buoys being used as a floating border barrier on the Rio Grande River between Texas and Mexico.Credit: AP
After months of insisting “the border is secure”, Biden’s secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, issued a notice overnight announcing the government would waive the 26 laws, essentially making it easier for the government to avoid time-consuming reviews and lawsuits as it constructs about 30 km of a wall along the Rio Grande River that separates Mexico from the US.
The move is the administration’s first use of an executive power often used by Trump to fund projects along the southern border.
However, asked at the White House whether he believes a border wall works, Biden answered, “no”, and told reporters that he had tried to get the money redirected but couldn’t as it was appropriated in 2019 and had to be used.
The issue is nonetheless likely to prove contentious given Biden’s previous position and his party’s repeated attacks on Trump’s signature policy.
For instance, two months before the 2020 election, Biden declared in an interview: “There will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration.”
Then, after winning the election, he signed an executive order in 2021 and said that building a wall at the southern border was “a waste of money that diverts attention from genuine threats to our homeland security.”
“Will Joe Biden apologise to me and America for taking so long to get moving, and allowing our country to be flooded with 15 million illegals immigrants, from places unknown,” Trump wrote Thursday in a Truth Social post.
“I will await his apology!”
Donald Trump visiting the wall in 2021 as one of his last acts as president. Credit: AP
The reversal underscores the political and policy challenge that Biden – who has had about six million asylum seekers detained or intercepted under his watch – faces ahead of next year’s election.
According to the latest Gallup poll, Biden’s overall approval rating sits at a low 42 per cent, but Americans view his performance on immigration to be much worse, at 31 per cent.
The border is one of the biggest challenges in the US, largely due to global shifts in migration caused by economic and political decline across many South and Central American nations, such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.
One of the main problems underpinning the broken immigration system is that there is no efficient and effective pathway to help people seek asylum, leaving many in a state of limbo for months, if not years, as they await court hearings.
One family this masthead recently spoke to in El Paso, for instance, walked for 75 days from Venezuela to get into the country, but now have to wait until March 2027 for a court date.
While Democrats have traditionally taken a cautious approach to the issue, the White House has hardened in recent months, coinciding with Republican Governors such as Ron DeSantis of Florida sending scores of migrants to Democratic cities such as Martha’s Vineyard to goad the president over the crisis.
Under tougher new rules, people won’t be able to seek asylum in the US unless they have first applied for, and been denied, legal protection in another country. Those sent back could also be banned from re-entering the US for a minimum of five years and risk criminal prosecution for repeated attempts.
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