“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall . . ,”from Robert Frost’s “Mending Walls.”
President Biden once vowed that not another foot of wall would be constructed under his watch.
But on Oct. 5, the Department of Homeland Security announced its intention to build up to 20 new miles of border barrier in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, one of the busiest crossing spots for migrants attempting to enter the U.S. The Biden administration also announced it waived 26 federal laws including the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Endangered Species Act to permit more border wall construction in southern Texas, using approximately $200 million of federal funds appropriated in 2019. In a press conference, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said “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.”
But despite Mayorkas’s statement the particular border location chosen for the barriers in Starr County, Texas is an area where there have been few illicit border crossings for some time.
President Biden said he had tried to get Congress to cancel or redirect the 2019 appropriation but was unsuccessful and therefore was obligated to spend it for border barriers. When asked by a reporter whether he thought walls along the border “worked”, his reply was emphatically “no!”
The idea of securing the border with walls or fences did not originate with former President Trump. It began in the Bush administration and continued during the Obama years.The Secure Fence Act passed by Congress in 2006 gave the Department of Homeland Security the authority to suspend dozens of laws so to facilitate the construction of a border wall or fence. The Customs and Border Patrol agency has been clearing land including portions of Indian reservations, national forests, the National Butterfly Center and the 2,088 acre Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, one of the most popular bird watching destinations in the country.
Prior to the Trump administration, more than 600 miles of border barriers (mostly fencing) had been installed along the nearly 2,000 mile border. Most of the “border barriers” constructed from 2016 to 2020 were fencing, largely repairs of previously installed barriers; fewer than 199 miles of new barrier have been installed.
President Biden told reporters that the waiving of more than 39 environmental laws and other restrictions was designed to speed up the implementation of the construction; however, if Biden thought the wall was a bad idea why would he want to waive the rules to help accomplish something he thought ineffective? He must have known that environmentalists would be furious about this as would native American groups and property owners along the Rio Grande whose land along the river would be compromised and may well be confiscated by any additional barrier building.
Despite the overwhelming failure throughout history of barrier walls to keep peoples apart, Trump has continued to claim, without any evidence, that walls “work”.
Trump promised his followers that he would build a large, beautiful wall (paid for by Mexico!) along the entire southern border, 1952 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea. Although they repaired and rebuilt nearly 400 miles of existing fence barriers, actually the Trump administration built just 52 miles of the 1,952 mile wall Trump had promised.
It has always been possible for those who wanted to go over, under, or around to do so. The cost of making “inpenetrable” walls, especially in difficult terrain has proven staggering expensive; even the Trump administration has reverted to less expensive, easier to build fencing in most cases. But they never seemed to rely on less costly high tech surveillance systems including drones and more officers in the field to apprehend invaders.
At the Rio Grande, the borderline is actually in the center of the river but the construction has had to be set back behind the flood plain on the U.S. side for both environmental and political reasons thereby making hundreds of square miles of U.S. borderland inaccessible. And the ancillary costs of creating these barriers, (roads, support facilities, utilities, and so on) can be even more expensive than the barriers.
As Will Hurd, the former congressman for this part of Texas and a current Republican Presidential candidate put it: “Trump’s wall is a third century solution for a twenty-first century problem.”
Why has Biden caved in and taken on expandingTrump’s wall? The situation at the border has gotten worse with more and more immigrants and asylum seekers attempting to enter the country. They seldom are willing to wait years for U.S. officials to process their applications; instead they try to enter the country any way they can. Biden knows that the whole immigration system needs to be reorganized but has been unable to get necessary Republican cooperation.
Democrats are likely to rationalize Biden’s about face as just politics although most environmentalists will be scornful. Perhaps by taking on this tiny segment of the border barrier Biden thinks he will gain political ground, at least with independents if not with Republicans.This remains to be seen. The symbolic political cost of implementing Trump’s folly may prove costly for Biden.
Architect and landscaoe designer Mac Gordon lives in Lakeville.
