President Joe Biden said Thursday that he doesn’t believe border walls work, even as his administration said it will waive 26 laws to build additional border barriers in the Rio Grande Valley amid heightened political pressure over migration.

According to a notice posted to the Federal Register Wednesday, construction of the wall will be paid for using already appropriated funds earmarked specifically for physical border barriers. The administration was under a deadline to use them or lose them. But the move comes at a time when a new surge of migrants is straining federal and local resources and placing heavy political pressure on the Biden administration to address a sprawling crisis, and the notice cited “high illegal entry.”

Biden – who, as a candidate, vowed that there will “not be another foot” of border wall constructed on his watch – defended the decision to reporters Thursday, saying that he tried to get the money appropriated for other purposes but was unsuccessful.

“I’ll answer one question on the border wall: The border wall – the money was appropriated for the border wall. I tried to get them to reappropriate it, to redirect that money. They didn’t, they wouldn’t.

And in the meantime, there’s nothing under the law other than they have to use the money for what it was appropriated. I can’t stop that,” Biden told reporters in the Oval Office.

Asked whether he believes the border wall works, Biden answered, “No.”

  • Poggervania@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I say they’re basically the same because one party allows the other to apparently undermine the US Constitution to a pretty far degree. The Dems aren’t pushing back against the Pubs on their batshit insane abortion laws, child labor law regressions, and whatever the fuck DeSantis is doing in Florida - they’re just sort of going along with it. “Oh, it’s just them being far-right - that’s just the silly old Republicans!” The two US parties are, at best, far-right and center-right - so they ultimately have some of the same interests of keeping businesses and corporate lobbyists happy.

    Hell, it’s ultimately not a right-or-left thing - it’s a class thing. Both the Dems and the Pubs now are the rich “aristocracy” being bribed left and right by the fucking corporate owners, while they all fuck over the rest of us working class people for a quick buck. Remember when people were blasting Republicans for taking PPP loans for either their own personal business or literally just for profit? Turns out Dems were doing it too, but because Dems feed just the right amount of bullshit and the Republicans were (and still are) saying and doing some insane shit, we let it slide. So I say they are the same because they both do some shady shit for corporate lobbyists and want to personally benefit whenever they can - if the Dems truly cared about being more left, then they would have let Bernie be the presidential candidate instead of Hillary, and they would be more accepting of AOC instead of weirdly ostracizing her.