The Southern Border Wall: The Biden Administration’s Controversial Additional Construction
A picture of Joe Biden walking with Border Patrol agents along the border in El Paso, Texas from January 2023 (Associated Press Photo/Andrew Harnik)
By Madeline Cannon ‘27
In a January 2021 proclamation, President Biden stated, “building a massive wall that spans the entire southern border is not a serious policy solution. It is a waste of money that diverts attention from genuine threats to our homeland security…It shall be the policy of my Administration that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall.”After promises from President Biden early in his presidency and throughout his campaign that he would halt the construction of the southern border wall, many of his supporters were left confused by his administration’s recent approval for the continued construction of 20 more miles of the wall in Southern Texas. President Biden responded to disappointment from supporters and other Democrats by stating, “The border wall money was appropriated for the border wall. I tried to get them to reappropriate it to redirect that money. They didn’t.” Additionally, when asked whether he believed walls work as a method of immigration control, he replied, “No.” In a White House press briefing on October 5, 2023, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also asserted, “This is something that we were required to do by law, and we are complying.”
Criticisms of the Border Wall’s Environmental Detriments
Although President Biden clarified that Congress had already appropriated the funds in 2019, there is still significant disapproval arising from the Biden administration’s decision to waive 26 federal laws to ease the process of construction. These federal laws include the Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and Endangered Species Act. Starr County Judge Eloy Vera and other advocates share concerns with the planned construction map cutting through public lands, habitats of endangered species, and highly erosive land with various creeks and a river. As the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated, “there is presently an acute and immediate need to construct barriers,” so the waiving of these laws helps the administration avoid time-consuming lawsuits or violations that the construction would face with these environmental laws.
House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez furthered this discussion by responding to the Biden administration’s decision: “The Biden administration was not required to waive several environmental laws to expedite the building of the border wall. The President needs to take responsibility for this decision and reverse course.”
Southwest Conservation Advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity Laiken Jordhal also commented that “A plan to build a wall through will bulldoze an impermeable barrier straight through the heart of that habitat. It will stop wildlife migrations dead in their tracks. It will destroy a huge amount of wildlife refuge land. And it’s a horrific step backward for the borderlands.” Many other conservationists and environmentalists are worried about the destruction of public lands and endangered species who live in the area, such as the ocelot.
Reactions to the Biden Administration’s Response to an Increasing Number of Migrants
Despite the Biden administration’s attempt to place blame onto Congress for the continued construction of the wall, many news sources suggest that the extra border wall is an undeniable consequence of the administration’s ongoing struggle with controlling the high number of migrants continuing to cross the Southern border. According to a Department of Homeland Security report, over two million arrests have been made at the southwest border this year, and approximately 245,000 were in the Rio Grande Valley. Though there was a decline from May to August in the number of immigrants crossing the southern border, there was a record number in September, with 200,000 migrants crossing.
Southwest NPR news director Angela Kochera set a narrative about these crossings, describing that, “There are large groups riding on top of rail cars through Mexico to reach the border city, Juarez, which is just across the border from El Paso…Once they reach this area, they camp right at the border fence, where there’s actually a gate, and they turn themselves in to Border Patrol agents, asking for asylum.”
Moreover, many major cities across the country have begun to feel pressure with the influx of migrants entering the country. Texas Governor Greg Abbott received vast attention nationwide for his response to this influx under his Operation Lone Star plan—a border security initiative which enables Abbott to deploy the National Guard to the border. Governor Abbott has highlighted that he is proud of Operation Lone Star’s work in busing “more than 10,000 migrants to our nation’s capital since April 2022, over 8,200 migrants to New York City since August 2022, more than 2,600 migrants to Chicago since August 2022, more than 1,600 migrants to Philadelphia since November 2022, over 210 migrants to Denver since May 2023, and over 40 migrants to Los Angeles since June 14.” This state-funded program even went as far as dropping migrants off outside of Vice President Kamala Harris’ Washington, D.C. home in September 2022. As Abbott put forth, “if President Biden will not come down and see the border, we will make sure they see it firsthand.” Evidently, there remains high tensions among many Republicans who are angry with the Biden administration's policy of discontinuing the southern border wall construction.
There is even additional pressure coming from Democrats for President Biden to control the growing number of migrants entering the nation. Five Democratic mayors from Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York have requested that President Biden provide federal funds to aid their management in this surge of asylum seekers, declaring that there is “little to no coordination, support or resources from his administration.” With growing pressure from these major cities and increasing numbers of migrants, the Biden administration was compelled to take action to combat these growing numbers, which many connect to the expansion of the southern border wall.
For example, of the 200,000 migrants that crossed in September 2023, 50,000 were Venezuelan. With this influx of Venezuelan migrants, the Biden administration concurrently announced that they would be resuming deportation flights to Venezuela as the number of people seeking asylum drastically increased. In October 2023, the first plane took over a hundred migrants back to their country, leaving some Democrats troubled and shocked by this decision. New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez’s reaction was that he “ thought, after the Trump administration, we would stop resorting to draconian and inhumane policies to address our challenges at the border.”
Impacts on the Approval of the Biden Administration
The Biden administration's recent move to expand the southern border wall by 20 miles is a consequence of ongoing tensions from both major political parties and the once-again increasing number of migrants seeking asylum. This recent decision also raises disapproval and confusion regarding the administration’s decision to waive federal laws that protect climate and public lands, which the Biden administration has also been vocal about upholding and protecting.
With President Biden failing to uphold his promises of “a comprehensive and humane immigration system that operates consistently with our Nation’s values,” and seemingly forgetting his pledge to “to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, compared with 2005 levels,” some Americans have begun to lose trust in his administration. For instance, the Biden administration has lost significant approval from 2021 to the end of 2023, with 64% of Americans expressing that they disapprove of the way Biden is handling his presidency. His approval rating amongst Democrats has thus dropped from 86% to 61%.
With the Biden administration neglecting promises and dropping in approval, this continuation of the border wall’s construction characterizes the uncertainty of his re-election.