The Department of Homeland Security is reportedly considering restarting construction on parts of the border wall, as record numbers of illegal aliens continue to cross in waves that are only expected to ramp up over the next several months.
Even after President Joe Biden spent much of his 2020 campaign lambasting former President Donald Trump’s border wall and vowing to halt its construction on Day One, Biden’s own DHS employees that the department may soon begin construction on parts of the wall to fill “gaps” in the existing structure – an effort that had already been underway during the Trump 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," then-candidate Biden said at the time.
But according to the Washington Times, Mayorkas said border wall construction was on the table during a session with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, suggesting that Biden’s executive order halting construction on Trump’s wall didn’t preclude the administration from working on “particular projects” pertaining to border fencing.
“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,” the secretary said.
Related: Border Agents Caught 171,000 Illegal Aliens In March Alone - Highest Monthly Total Since 2006
“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,” he said.
Those projects include “gaps,” “gates,” and areas “where the wall has been completed but the technology has not been implemented,” the Times reported, per notes from the event.
The news comes as recent public polling shows flagging support for Biden's immigration policies, with more Americans saying they're unhappy with the new president's total bungling of the migration crisis that has already resulted in hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens streaming across the border since his inauguration.