Illinois Rep. Delia Ramirez is criticizing President Joe Biden’s decision to waive more than two dozen federal laws, which will allow the administration to construct approximately 20 miles of additional barriers along the southern border with Mexico.
While the president said the decision was out of his hands due to the way funds were allocated to the project, Ramirez said that the move was a mistake, calling it a distraction from the real work of addressing concerns about immigration.
“A border wall has never been, and never will be, a moral or practical solution to the very real challenges faced by our immigration system,” she said. “It is disappointing that more taxpayers’ money will be wasted on the construction of a painful anti-migrant symbol that endangers asylum seekers, scars sacred lands, and consumes resources we could be using to provide relief.”
Biden defended the decision, saying he did not believe that barriers worked, but emphasizing that he had no choice but to spend the allocated funds on the barrier.
“The money was appropriated for the border wall,” he said. “I can’t stop that.”
Ramirez, the vice ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee in the House, said that her focus, and that of Congress, should remain on comprehensive immigration reform, as well as providing aid to other countries to help address issues that ultimately lead to migration.
“If we want to truly address immigration productively, we have to take a serious look at our immigration system, push for a long-overdue comprehensive immigration reform, and work with our neighboring countries to address the root causes of migration,” she said.
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The Biden Administration made more waves on Thursday when it announced that it would resume deporting migrants back to Venezuela in an effort to address increasing numbers of arrivals at the southern border.
Many of those migrants are being transported to northern cities, including New York, Chicago and Washington D.C.
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According to the Associated Press, the additional border construction will take place near a section of the border that has seen 245,000 illegal crossings.
