The Department of Homeland Security has resumed Trump-era border wall construction in Texas, despite the Biden administration’s policy stated in January 2021 declaring the end of the national emergency at the border.
The agency said in a notice that it is using authorities provided under a 1996 immigration law, citing the attempted entry of over 245,000 migrants in the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector during the last fiscal year. DHS said the move is consistent with President Joe Biden’s 2021 proclamation since it needs to spend remaining funds from a $1.375 billion fiscal 2019 appropriation.
“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 into the United States in the project areas” pursuant to the 1996 law, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas wrote in the notice, published Thursday in the Federal Register.
