Immigration advocates criticize Biden after move allowing border wall construction

Read the Full Transcript

• Amna Nawaz:

  The Biden administration is taking fire for a recent move to expedite the construction of a stretch of wall along the Southern border.

  Laura Barrón-López has more.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  President Biden says the money for a wall along a portion of the border was appropriated during the Trump administration, and that his hands are tied.

  Joe Biden, President of the United States: Well, I was told I had no choice, that Congress passes legislation to build something. I can't say I don't like it, I'm not going to do it.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  The move is sparking outcry from some immigration advocates and others who point to Biden's 2020 campaign promise.

• Joe Biden:

  There will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas tried to clarify the administration's position yesterday.

  Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security: There is no new administration policy with respect to the border wall.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  Joining us to discuss is Washington Post reporter Nick Miroff.

  Nick, thanks so much.

  "NewsHour" spoke to Art Del Cueto of the National Border Patrol Council, a union that represents border agents, and we asked him about the construction of this section of the wall.

• Art Del Cueto, Vice President, Border Patrol Union:

  It's a knee-jerk reaction. And, right now, they're doing it a little bit too late. We've had millions of individuals that have come across. The administration has to realize, hey, look, we were wrong.

  Whether they want to come out and say they were wrong or not, I think them just openly saying we're going to start building more wall, I think that alone proves that they were wrong.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  Nick, the president said that he doesn't believe a border wall works, but the data tends to suggest it also doesn't necessarily serve as a deterrent, so what exactly is the purpose of construction of even just a section of wall?

• Nick Miroff, The Washington Post:

  Well, what was significant about the federal register notice that the administration published yesterday is — well, two things, one, that they were waiving more than two dozen laws, including the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and other environmental protections, but also that they referred to the barrier as an urgent necessity to stop illegal entries in that section of South Texas.

  We have never seen the administration talk about the barrier that way. And, if anything, what we have seen is what the president said and — which is the idea that these barriers don't work.

  So, right there, we saw a pretty glaring contradiction in the administration's position these barriers.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  And I'm glad you mentioned the environmental aspect here, because "NewsHour" also spoke to the Southwest — a Southwest conservation advocate who was frustrated about this border barrier being constructed.

  We spoke to Laiken Jordahl of the Center for Biological Diversity, and here's what they had to say.

  Laiken Jordahl, Center for Biological Diversity: Look, there is no environmentally friendly border wall. These walls will fragment wildlife habitat. They will stop wildlife migrations. They will cut animals off from their main source of drinking water, which, of course, is the Rio Grande.

  And there is no way to do this environmentally consciously. Perhaps what's even more concerning is that the administration has waived our nation's most important environmental laws, not just to build these walls, but to rush their construction.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  Nick, were the president's hands tied, as he suggested today, or was this a choice, as the environmental advocate pointed out?

• Nick Miroff:

  Yes, well, he's right that this money was appropriated by Congress to build barriers in these areas.

  However, since when has the fear of a lawsuit ever stopped this administration from going forward with the immigration policies it wants to pursue? I mean, this administration is facing a number of lawsuits over its border and immigration policies in many different places.

  And, really, it's the decision to waive these environmental laws and other protections to expedite barrier construction that is a break from the past and has raised questions about whether or not the Biden administration is taking a new policy approach with regard to the border wall.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  President Biden is also facing incoming from Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat who's a trusted ally of the president's 2024 campaign.

  And Governor Pritzker confronted the administration this week on this.

• Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL):

  There are other things the federal government can do other than sending us money that they haven't yet done.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  Pritzker also said that the situation is untenable.

  And, Nick, you recently reported on the conditions in cities like Chicago. What are the conditions for the migrants that are there and being bused, many of them, by red state governors?

• Nick Miroff:

  Sure.

  Well, I mean, the strains on cities like New York, Chicago, Denver and others have become more and more apparent. It's simply too many people arriving too fast. What's different about this current wave of newcomers to the United States, many of whom are fleeing really terrible conditions back in their home countries, one group in particular, Venezuelan migrants, are coming in large numbers to New York in particular.

  And Venezuelans who are coming to the United States don't tend to have the same family and friend support networks as previous waves of migrants. And that makes them in some ways more dependent on city services and particularly on shelter.

  And so, in New York, the shelter laws really have — they obligate the city to make sure there are beds for all of the newcomers. That is what's put such a strain on Mayor Eric Adams. But we're seeing this in many other countries — sorry — in many other states.

  And that's why many of these Democratic mayors are calling on the federal government and the Biden administration to do more to support them and to reduce the number of people or at least the pace at which they're arriving across the border.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  Yesterday, Nick, the president also resumed removal flights of Venezuelan nationals who cross the border unlawfully.

  Why are they making this change now? And how many people could be affected?

• Nick Miroff:

  Well, this is in part to address the pressure that they're getting from other Democrats, I think.

  I mean, what they announced is that they will resume deportation flights to Venezuela. The timing of this is very curious, because it comes just two weeks after the Biden administration designated Venezuelans for a form of temporary legal status. That protection extends to nearly 500,000 Venezuelans who arrived before July 31.

  And so these new deportation flights are going to be oriented toward Venezuelans who crossed the border illegally starting after August 1 and who don't qualify for some kind of humanitarian protection in the United States.

  So this is really an effort by the Biden administration to try to put more consequences, as they would say, into the immigration enforcement system and try to steer Venezuelans back to the expanded legal opportunities that they have opened up for Venezuelans, Cubans, and other nationalities over the last year and so in particular.

• Laura Barrón-López:

  Nick Miroff of The Washington Post, thank you.

• Nick Miroff:

  Thanks, Laura.