At the onset of his presidency, the US president had firmly stated that American taxpayers would no longer fund the wall on the border with Mexico.
Nonetheless, Joe Biden recently proclaimed he couldn’t « halt » the expansion of the wall separating the United States and Mexico. On Thursday, October 5, he asserted that he was legally bound to continue the construction of this border wall. His Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, announced that a new section of the wall would soon be erected in the Rio Grande Valley.
Unexpected Declaration of Joe Biden
Alejandro Mayorkas emphasized an « acute and immediate need to build physical barriers and roads » near American borders to « thwart illegal crossings ». This move was criticized as a « step backward » by the Mexican president.
Upon taking office, Joe Biden had condemned the building of such a « massive » wall as not being a « serious political solution ».
He had also assured citizens they would no longer finance this construction at the Mexican border.
Joe Biden explained that funds were already allocated for the wall construction, and he had attempted to convince Congress to reallocate these funds to other projects, to no avail. He also stressed that it was « legally impossible to use these funds for purposes other than those initially intended ».
