The Biden administration, in an about-face to its previous stance, declared on Oct. 5 that there’s an “immediate need” to expedite the construction of the U.S.–Mexico border wall in Starr County, Texas, in response to the rapidly growing influx of illegal immigrants.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he waived dozens of federal regulations—26 in total—in order to fast-track the construction of roads and barriers along the southern border in Texas.
The new barriers will be built within the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector, an area designated as a “high illegal entry” zone. The construction will occur in the vicinity of the Falcon Dam, the Arroyo Morteros Tract, the Las Ruinas Tract, the Arroyo Ramirez Tract, intersections of major roads such as Perez Road and U.S. Highway 83, and various tracts within the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
“There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States,” Mr. Mayorkas said. “Therefore, I must use my authority under section 102 of IIRIRA to install additional physical barriers and roads in the Rio Grande Valley Sector.
“Therefore, DHS will take immediate action to construct barriers and roads.”
DHS intends to fund the construction project using appropriations allocated by Congress during the Trump administration in 2019 for the purpose of building the border wall in the Rio Grande Valley.
In order to build the walls and roads to deter illegal immigration, Mr. Mayorkas determined that it necessary, under Section 102 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), to “waive certain laws, regulations, and other legal requirements.”
The waived statutes include several environmental and conservation laws, such as the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, among others. While the waiver grants exceptions to a wide range of statutes, DHS noted that it doesn’t revoke or supersede any previously granted waivers issued pursuant to Section 102(c) of IIRIRA.
Mr. Mayorkas retained the authority to issue more waivers if he deems it necessary to meet the objectives outlined in the legislation.
Need for Border Wall
Republicans, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have blamed Biden administration policies, such as rolling back Trump-era measures and ending border wall construction, for the unprecedented illegal immigration numbers.In early 2021, the Biden administration stopped the ongoing construction of a border wall after President Joe Biden took office. He contended that former President Donald Trump’s focus on constructing the wall was misguided and an example of his purported inability to secure the border and manage immigration.
On Oct. 2, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador warned that the United States will soon see around 10,000 migrants arriving at the U.S.–Mexico border every day. He noted that his warning is based on the number of migrants crossing into Mexico from Guatemala every day for the past week.
Mexico, which is the United States’ largest trading partner, provides a government-run bus service, sending migrants from the country’s southern region to its northern border with the United States.
Mr. Mayorkas’s announcement comes one day ahead of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Mexico, where he and other administration officials will meet with officials to discuss shared security, health, and public safety issues.
On Oct. 4, Mr. Blinken said the United States and Mexico share a “mutual responsibility” regarding the current crises of fentanyl trafficking and illegal immigration that must be tackled through cooperation between the two countries.
A synthetic opioid, fentanyl can be 50 times stronger than heroin and was responsible for 70 percent of deaths by overdose or poisoning in 2022. Enough fentanyl has been trafficked into the United States through the southern border to kill every U.S. citizen, with the Drug Enforcement Administration saying it confiscated more than 387.9 million potentially lethal doses in 2022.
