As you’ve probably heard by now, the Biden administration had decided it’s time to build the wall. As Karen pointed out yesterday, this is a big about face from an administration that ran on basically reversing every move the Trump administration had made along the border. But since then the story has only gotten more confusing. According to Sec. Mayorkas statement yesterday, there is no new policy regarding the border wall.
I want to address today’s reporting relating to a border wall and be absolutely clear.
There is no new Administration policy with respect to border walls. My full statement ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/ga1fEMqvN8
— Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (@SecMayorkas) October 5, 2023
Contrary to that claim, the NY Times published a story yesterday saying the Biden administration was reversing direction on the border wall and on the handling of Venezuelan migrants.
The Biden administration on Thursday said it would expand former President Donald Trump’s wall on the Mexican border and begin deporting thousands of Venezuelans in an effort to cut down on the migrant surge that shows no signs of abating.
The moves are an about-face by the White House, which is under political pressure to stem the flow of people. Criticism is intensifying among Republicans as well as Democratic leaders in New York, Chicago and elsewhere who say the influx is overwhelming their ability to house and feed the migrants.
During his campaign for president, Mr. Biden denounced efforts to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, saying it was “not a serious policy solution.” But on Thursday the administration said it was waiving more than 20 federal laws and regulations to allow for the construction of physical barriers along a portion of the border in South Texas, near McAllen…
“There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States,” Mr. Mayorkas said, adding that waiving laws and other requirements was necessary to complete the work more quickly.
So is the wall happening or not? Well, yes, but White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said yesterday she didn’t know anything about Sec. Mayorkas statement that it was actually necessary.
KJP is STUMPED that the Biden administration is now "building the wall."
REPORTER: "If the border wall is ineffective, why is the DHS secretary saying that it's 'necessary' to prevent unlawful entries into the United States?"
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE: "I have not seen that"… pic.twitter.com/CjemzaZsok
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) October 5, 2023
The spin coming out of the White House is that DHS is required to build the wall (because of previous appropriations dating to 2019) even though the president still doesn’t believe it will work.
ABC's @SelinaWangTV: Biden "just told me that a border wall does not work. If that's the case, Why does his…Homeland Security secretary say….'there is presently an acute & immediate need to construct physical barriers?'"
KJP says Biden was "clear" & "this is not new" pic.twitter.com/phb3mark9K
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 5, 2023
That queued up this perfect question from Doocy trying to highlight the White House’s pretzel logic.
Doocy trolling KJP:
"If you have to build a border wall, but you don’t think that it’s gonna work then once it’s done, are you just going to tear it down?" pic.twitter.com/IGpt6OzGtK
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) October 5, 2023
Bottom line, there is no way to square this circle as another reporter made clear yesterday.
WATCH: KJP gets called out for the Biden Administration’s lack of clarity on border wall construction: pic.twitter.com/PKG7jPsM6u
— Conservative War Machine (@WarMachineRR) October 5, 2023
And that brings us to AOC who, you may remember, has been struggling lately to square her own previous statements about the border during the Trump administration with her relative silence about it now. We all remember these photos taken in 2018:
Before @AOC hit the national stage & was just a fairly unknown House candidate frm NYC,she took time awy frm her campaign & came dwn to #Tornillo to protest the #tentcity housing migrant children.I made these previously unpublished fotos a yr ago today. #elpaso #aoc #onassignment pic.twitter.com/SWyyI1XVt9
— Ivan Pierre Aguirre : 🥑 (@i_p_a_1) June 25, 2019
And we all remember AOC arguing that the government was running “concentration camps.” And that led to this recent and very awkward exchange in a NY Times interview:
Under Biden, more asylum seekers are being held in private detention centers than under Trump. Families are still being separated. The Biden administration kept Trump-era policies that sped up deportations and made it harder for legitimate claimants to come to the U.S. So, what grade do you give the administration on immigration?
Immigration is arguably this administration’s weakest issue. This is one area where our policy is dictated by politics, arguably more so than almost any other. There are very clear recommendations and suggestions that we have made to the administration to provide relief on this issue, and it’s my belief that some of the hesitation around this has to do with a fear around just being seen as approving or providing permission structures, or really just the Republican narratives that have surrounded immigration.
We also need to examine the root causes of this migration and address that this problem doesn’t start at our border, but it starts with our foreign policy.
I mean, it doesn’t start at our border. And I know that this has been a right-wing talking point, but I do want to understand your thinking here. Why haven’t you used your considerable clout as a Latina leader to visit the border and highlight the ongoing issues there now, like you did during the Trump administration?
And we all know why AOC isn’t speaking up the way she used to. It’s because she supports the current guy. In fact in July she endorsed him for reelection. It just wouldn’t be helpful to be out there saying Joe Biden is running concentration camps on the border even if the situation is undeniably worse now than it was a few years ago.
So yesterday AOC tried to salvage whatever is left of her diminishing credibility on this issue by releasing a statement about the plan to build the wall. Apparently she also did not get the message that the Biden administration still doesn’t believe in this.
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) October 5, 2023
The statement reads in part: “The Biden administration was not required to expand construction of the border wall – and they certainly were not required to waive several environmental laws to expedite the building. The President need to take responsibility for this decision and reverse course.” Again, this is the guy she just endorsed. Which raises an interesting question. Would she pull her endorsement if he doesn’t reverse course?
If it were me, I’d retract my endorsement. https://t.co/wo5pp0u1JF
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) October 6, 2023
Jim Treacher sort of summed it up in this image. You can’t have it both ways.
https://t.co/al34i8mhVZ pic.twitter.com/2OCzH7GVrt
— jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) October 6, 2023
She pretty much has to retract the endorsement, right? There’s no way she can ignore the wall building after all of the things she’s said in the past. But it’s also worth noting that AOC’s analysis of the greater problem is lacking.
AOC argues that migrants coming to US have no other options, there are lots of countries between Venezuela and the US where they can claim asylum. They are mostly economic migrants. https://t.co/tIMUozDpfi
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) October 5, 2023
Her statement also makes no mention of the communist revolutionaries who have driven millions of Venezuelan migrants out of the country. I’d really love to hear her thoughts on what went wrong with the glorious Bolivarian revolution. That’s a topic Democratic Socialists never want to talk about for some reason.
In this short statement about the Venezuelan refugee crisis, AOC manages to blame:
• The Border Wall
• Joe Biden
• 2017 Sanctions on Venezuela
• Marco RubioAOC does not blame:
• Nicolas Maduro https://t.co/Hgl8FdldPu
— Kareem Rifai 🌐 (@KareemRifai) October 5, 2023
It seems her position now is that what we don’t need is more border wall or more boots on the border. We just need to talk about the incentives driving people north. I tried to point out that one of the biggest incentives pulling people north is her party’s endless attempts to welcome everyone who shows up at the border.
There are policies that can reduce migration other than more money but the left's approach to the border is 'Let's help these poor migrants.' That incentivizes more migrants to come. Rinse and repeat.
Your party is a big factor in the incentive structure. How can we fix that?
— John Sexton (@verumserum) October 6, 2023
AOC may be right that building a wall isn’t the most effective way to stop illegal immigration but she and her party oppose literally everything else that might work. She’s literally been supporting the migrants who arrive in NYC, which I can assure you does not help convince other migrants to stay home.
All of this is a giant mess for AOC and for the Biden administration but it’s pretty entertaining to watch. Someone break out the Jiffy Pop.
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