The Department of Homeland Security may restart construction on the border wall to fill in “gaps” in the barrier as the immigration crisis continues to grow worse.
The Washington Times reported that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials during a meeting last week that he was considering ways to fill “gaps in the wall.”
According to notes of the meeting obtained by the Times, Mayorkas has submitted a plan indicating where the wall needs work.
Work on the border wall would serve as a sharp contrast to President Joe Biden‘s rhetoric on immigration.
During the prior administration, leading Democrats called the wall wasteful, ineffective and in some cases, racist.
Biden has routinely downplayed the severity of the recent surge in illegal immigrants, which is the highest in years, and Democrats have long opposed the idea.
Former president Donald Trump responded to the news during an interview on Newsmax Tuesday.
“I think it’s great that they reversed themselves, but a lot of damage was done because we were gonna have that wall almost complete,” Trump said. “You know, it delayed two and a half years because of lawsuits.”
Biden has taken ample heat for his handling of the border crisis—both from Republicans concerned about the flow of illegal immigrants and Democrats who accuse him of using the same detainment facilities for children that Trump was heavily criticized for during his administration.
The majority of Americans consider the situation at the southern border a “crisis,” according to polling in March.
Former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen warned of the challenges at the border during the Trump administration, and now it seems the crisis has only grown worse.
“The truth is that the politics and policies of open borders have failed the American people,” she said in 2019.
“Our broken system endures, and the ongoing humanitarian and security crisis at our Southwest Border leaves many minors and families at extreme risk of being exploited by traffickers, human smugglers, gangs, and other nefarious actors seeking to profit at their expense,” she continued.
“… Activist courts, congressional inaction, and criminals intent on breaking our laws stand in the way of confronting illegal and uncontrolled migration threatening our safety and security. What was a crisis, is now a full-fledged emergency.”
