Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar lashed out at the Biden administration after reports that the Department of Homeland Security will resume limited construction on Donald Trump’s border wall to fill “gaps.”
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told department employees that he may restart the border wall construction to fix existing gaps in the barrier, according to the Washington Times.
Mayorkas reportedly said that while Biden canceled the emergency declaration at the border and blocked Pentagon funds from being used for the project, “that leaves room to make decisions” on finishing some “gaps in the wall.”
“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,” he said. “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. 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.”
Omar hits out:
"It's shameful and unacceptable for @POTUS to continue the construction of Trump's xenophobic and racist wall," Omar tweeted on Wednesday.
Biden during his campaign vowed that “there will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration.”
"I'm going to make sure that we have border protection, but it's going to be based on making sure that we use high-tech capacity to deal with it. And at the ports of entry — that's where all the bad stuff is happening," he told NPR last August.
Construction still paused:
Construction has been paused since January though White House press secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged on Wednesday that “limited construction” has already been funded.
"Wall construction remains paused, to 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,” she said. "It is paused. There is some limited construction that has been funded and allocated for, but it is otherwise paused."
