Asked by reporters at the White House Thursday about his administration’s plans, the president said he did not believe the barriers were effective but construction had to move forward because Congress already appropriated the funds.
“I can’t stop that,” Biden said, without elaborating. He took no further questions.
The federal register notice issued by the Department of Homeland Security said the administration faces an overwhelming increase in illegal border entries, requiring new barriers whose construction cannot be delayed by U.S. environmental laws and other safeguards.
“There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries,” said the notice, issued by DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas.
Mayorkas said the administration would waive more than two dozen laws, including the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Historic Preservation Act.
His notice described plans for new segments of fencing at 10 locations in the Rio Grande Valley, where U.S. agents made nearly 245,000 border arrests during the 2023 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.
Biden’s “pause” on construction in January 2021 left the $11 billion barrier— one of the most expensive federal infrastructure projects in U.S. history — with dozens of unfinished gaps and piles of unused steel bollards laying around in the desert.
Republican lawmakers have been trying to force the administration to resume construction on the roughly 250 additional miles of barriers called for in the Trump plan. Trump added about 450 miles of new barriers during his term.
Biden’s inauguration-day order that halted construction allowed for exceptions to “avert immediate physical dangers.” Mayorkas later authorized crews to close some unfinished gaps using funds previously authorized by Congress, citing concerns such as site safety, erosion prevention and a need to shore up the structural integrity of the barriers.
Asked about the need for the waivers, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials took an expansive view of the safety exception, saying the protection of U.S. agents, migrants, and border communities fits within the scope of Biden’s Jan. 2021 order. CBP officials said they would take steps to mitigate the impacts of the new barriers.
“CBP remains committed to protecting the nation’s cultural and natural resources and will implement sound environmental practices as part of the project covered by this waiver,” CBP spokesperson Erin Waters said in a statement.
Last month Border Patrol agents made nearly 219,000 arrests along the southern border, the highest monthly tally in 2023, according to preliminary CBP data obtained by The Post. The Rio Grande Valley was CBP’s second-busiest sector in September, after southern Arizona’s Tucson sector, the data show.
Wildlife advocates who applauded Biden’s construction freeze in 2021 said they were dismayed to see his administration adding more miles of steel barriers, which block the migratory routes of larger mammals.
“It’s disheartening to see President Biden stoop to this level, casting aside our nation’s bedrock environmental laws to build ineffective wildlife-killing border walls,” Laiken Jordahl, Southwest conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement.
The area where the new segments will be added, Starr County, “is home to some of the most spectacular and biologically important habitat left in Texas and now bulldozers are preparing to rip right through it,” Jordahl said. “This is a horrific step backwards for the borderlands.”
The border wall’s effectiveness at preventing illegal crossings remains a point of contention. Smuggling organizations in Mexico have sawed through its steel bars thousands of times, requiring millions in repairs. Smugglers also regularly deploy cheap ladders to bring migrants over the top, lowering them down the other side with ropes.
Luis Miranda, a DHS spokesman, insisted the department’s new construction did not amount to a change in administration policy. “The construction project you’re reading about today was appropriated during the prior administration, in 2019, and the government is legally required to utilize these funds for their appropriated purpose,” Miranda said in a statement.
CBP officials said the new segments of barriers they plan to build will minimize environmental impacts by using a moveable “jersey barrier” foundation, in contrast to existing segments of the barrier that are anchored in concrete.
