Tipsheet

As Biden Ignores Illegal Immigration Crisis, Texas Begins Border Wall Construction

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  December 21, 2021 10:00 AM

Nearly a year into President Biden's tenure, it's no secret that he and his administration have done the opposite of helping secure the United States' southern border. Federal authorities continue to register record numbers of illegal immigrant apprehensions while the number of "gotaways" continues to increase (check out more of Julio's coverage from the border here). All the while, Biden and his cabinet refuse to call the situation along the U.S.-Mexico border a crisis. As conditions worsened along the border, the state leaders in Texas took matters into their own hands and, as Julio also covered, launched Operation Lone Star to enforce the international border Biden ignores. 

After the Biden administration halted construction of the border wall that aimed to create a physical barrier to illegal immigrants and drug or human trafficking, Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) announced Texas would do the federal government's job and continue building more wall — with a $250 million down payment followed up with an additional $750 million in state funding — where they are able to plug some holes in the porous border Biden erroneously claims is "closed."

Now, Texas' border wall is going up. In a video tweeted Monday by Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, construction on the "Texas Wall" can be seen on state-owned land "right on the banks of the Rio Grande River on 3,100 acres that the taxpayers of Texas own." The initial Texas Wall, as Commissioner Bush explains, will close a gap between walls constructed by former Presidents Bush and Trump. 

"We are announcing the beginning of the Texas Wall since President Biden has neglected his responsibilities under the Constitution to secure our borders and to secure our sovereignty as an American people," Commissioner Bush says in the video. "Construction crews are already at work on state acreage... to connect the 'W. Wall' and the 'Trump Wall.'"

"The people of Texas are saying to their president, if you aren't going to do your job, we'll do it for you," Bush added.

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Gov. Abbott explained more about his state's work to secure at least the portion of the U.S.-Mexico border within the Lone Star State, of which the Texas Wall is "just a part" in addition to "about 10,000 National Guard and Department of Public Safety officers engaged in this fight to secure our border" as part of Abbott's Operation Lone Star. 

Even better, Texas is using the contractor originally secured by President Trump to resume construction of its border wall. Despite Texas doing the job of the federal government, the Biden administration has apparently been unresponsive to requests from Gov. Abbott to buy or use the materials left in piles by the Biden administration to build more barrier.

Meanwhile, Biden's Department of Homeland Security announced in a release on Monday that it would be "closing small gaps" in border security projects left incomplete for the last several months since Biden took office:

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas authorized U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to move forward with activities necessary to address life, safety, environmental, and remediation requirements for border barrier projects previously undertaken by the Department of Defense (DoD) and located within the Border Patrol’s San Diego, El Centro, Yuma, Tucson, El Paso, and Del Rio Sectors.

But DHS' decision, without an admission that there's a crisis at the border that deserves more action than just "remediation" of projects Biden killed, shows that it's up to states like Texas to take action if they want border security.