Biden admin considering finishing construction of border wall amid migrant crisis

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who has touted the Biden administration's humanitarian intentions behind welcoming all unaccompanied children across the border and granting them admittance into the US, said that they may be considering restarting construction on the abandoned border wall.

The Washington Times reports that it was in a conversation with Customs Enforcement employees last that he was asked about DHS intentions as to the partially constructed wall, and he said that though the project was halted via executive order, "that leaves room to make decisions" as to completing some "gaps in the wall."

It has been reported that immigrants are able to cross the border through openings in the wall, and that equipment and materials have merely been left behind, as the construction was halted immediately upon Biden's Oval Office orders.

The Washington Times reviewed notes from that meeting between ICE and Mayorkas, and said that ICE has plans for resuming construction and filling those gaps.

According to those notes, Mayorkas said that "It's not a single answer to a single question. There are different projects that the chief of the Border Patrol has presented and the acting commissioner of CBP presented to me."

"The president has communicated quite clearly his decision that the emergency that triggered the devotion of DOD funds to the construction of the border wall is ended," Mayorkas is reported to have said. "But that leaves room to make decisions as the administration, as part of the administration, in particular areas of the wall that need renovation, particular projects that need to be finished."

Addressing reporters questions on the matter on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that "Well wall construction remains paused by the extent permitted by law. So some has already been funded through congressional authorization and funding allocation. But as agencies develop for a plan—it's paused while agencies are developing a plan for the President on the management of the federal funds.

"When the administration took office, as you mentioned, funds had been diverted from congressionally appropriated military construction projects and other appropriated purposes toward building the wall. And wall construction was being challenged in multiple lawsuits, for much of the wall, I should say, not all of it, by plaintiff who allege serious safety and environmental issues.

"Under those circumstances, federal agencies are continuing to review wall contracts and develop a plan to submit to the President soon. It is paused, there is some limited construction that has been funded and allocated for, but it has been paused."

Human traffickers have been selling their services on social media, with ads reading: "Travel to Mexico to the United States. Costs $8,000. 100 percent safe." Another reads: "Cross through Matamoros. You walk one hour, after in automobile until you arrive to your relative."

Border agents report that traffickers send one group of migrants across the border with the intention of having them apprehended by border patrol, while they send another group through while agents are distracted.

After construction on the border wall came to an abrupt halt, Mayorkas was given 60 days to develop a report or a plan on how to deal with the wall and the border, but that deadline passed without deliverables from DHS.

Former President Donald Trump ran on a promise to build the wall along the thousands mile stretch of border land between the US and Mexico, but Joe Biden ran on a plan of reversing course and prying the border back open in the name of humanitarian concerns. Human traffickers have been thriving under the new, lax policies.