Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas rejected the premise of a physical wall at the southern border on Wednesday, putting himself at odds with a recent Biden administration decision to restart wall construction.
In early October, the Biden administration walked back President Joe Biden's 2020 campaign promise that"there will not be another foot of wall constructed" along the border with an announcement that it would waive two dozen federal laws in order to erect a barrier in southeast Texas swiftly. Unfinished projects funded by Congress during the Trump administration were required to be spent on border security measures, including technology, roads, infrastructure, or barriers. In this case, the DHS opted to use the money on the actual wall.
Mayorkas described the Rio Grande Valley, where roughly 3,000 Border Patrol agents work, as a"high illegal entry" area. In the first 10 months of fiscal 2023, the Border Patrol apprehended more than 245,000 people who illegally entered the country through this area.