"Folks, I voted for a fence, I voted, unlike most Democrats -- and some of you won't like it -- I voted for 700 miles of fence," Joe Biden told a South Carolina rotary club in 2006.
At the time Biden was touting his support for the Secure Fence Act -- a bill that authorized 700 miles of two-layered reinforced fencing on the border.
Biden argued border security was needed to prevent drugs from coming into the US, “And let me tell you something folks, people are driving across that border with tons, tons, hear me, tons of everything from byproducts for methamphetamine to cocaine to heroin and it's all coming up through corrupt Mexico."
The Secure Fence Act was also vocally supported by then Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
In 2005 Senator Barack Obama said, “We simply cannot allow people to pour into the U.S., undetected, undocumented, unchecked and circumventing the line of people who are waiting patiently, diligently, lawfully to become immigrants in this country.”
The act was passed, but the fence was never finished mainly due to a lack of funding. Only recently have Americans finally started to see actual border wall being erected, with the Pentagon reporting in September that about a mile of border wall is being built each day.
Currently, the Democrats are once again fighting any funding for the Trump administration to build a wall along the Mexico – U.S. Border.
The federal government is currently running on a continuing resolution that expires on Nov. 21. To keep the government running beyond that date, Congress will need to pass a new funding bill and President Trump will need to sign it.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says Democrats will not provide funding for a border wall in their negotiations.