U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas revealed that the Biden administration is considering continuing to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall to plug gaps in the existing border wall (gaps) in response to the immigration crisis.
The Washington Times reported in accordance with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) meeting minutes that Mayorkas was asked about the border wall when he spoke with the agency last week, saying that although President Biden has lifted the border emergency and suspended the Defense Department’s wall budget, there is still room to complete some of the border wall gaps and possibly restart the border wall construction that has been halted.
Mayorkas said the federal Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which oversees the construction of the border wall, has submitted a plan that could be implemented.
Mayorkas said: The president has clearly expressed his decision to start the Department of Defense wall budget emergency has ended, but the government of the border wall location has room to make decisions, especially the need to refurbish the border wall, including gaps, gates, as well as the completion of the border wall, but technology equipment has not been installed part.
The U.S.-Mexico border is 1,951 miles long, and the original plan was to build a border wall of more than 1,200 miles, with former President Trump having completed about 460 miles by the time he left office.
The border wall is connected by towering steel pillars, which officials say are equipped with intrusion-detecting technology that would allow border enforcement officers to get to the site as quickly as possible and stop anyone from going over.
A recent poll conducted by the Senate Opportunity Fund, a nonprofit organization, showed that about 53 percent of respondents still support building the wall after Trump leaves office.
President Biden signed an executive order to end border wall construction on the day he took office, vowing not to build another foot of wall and announcing a complete halt to construction at his inauguration on Jan. 20 this year.
But according to the Washington Post, the federal Customs and Border Protection agency arrested more than 171,000 illegal immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in March, a 15-year high; including 18,800 unaccompanied juveniles and children, far beyond the federal government’s capacity to house and care for them.
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