Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador described Thursday’s decision by Washington to expand the border wall between the two countries in an attempt to prevent migrants from illegally entering the United States as a “backward step”, according to AFP.
Andres Manuel Lopez ObradorPhoto: AFP / AFP / Profimedia
“This authorization to build the wall is a step backwards because it doesn’t solve the problem, we have to address the causes” of illegal immigration, the president said at his regular morning press conference.
US President Joe Biden’s administration announced Thursday that it will begin building additional sections of a wall along the Texas-Mexico border in a region facing a surge of migrants trying to cross the border illegally into the United States, reports Reuters.
The Democratic administration’s Department of Homeland Security in Washington said it had to circumvent several laws, regulations and other legal requirements “to ensure the rapid construction of barriers and roads in the vicinity of the international land border in Starr County, Texas,” according to a postings made to the US government’s Federal Register.
The move represents a complete reversal of the Biden administration’s policies on physical barriers, an issue Trump campaigned on during both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections with his famous “Build That Wall” slogan ( Build that wall).
But one of Biden’s first actions after arriving at the White House was to issue a proclamation stating that “not one dollar of the American taxpayer’s money will be used to build a border wall.” Biden also ordered upon taking office that all funding already allocated in this regard be audited
