Even as the migrant crisis stirs bitter criticism from members of Biden’s own party in some of the bluest areas, the administration continues to enable mass migration through the dismantling of border protections.
As reported by Fox News, another series of structural tubes once used in securing the U.S.-Mexico border were sold off in Red Rock, Arizona, through the auction website GovPlanet.
Listings that showed the materials as being “sold” displayed values ranging from $25,000 to $50,000. Per the auction site, four more listings of the material will become available on September 6, beginning at $1,000 a piece.
Republicans railed at news of the sale. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) told Fox News that “By auctioning off these border wall materials that I have worked to put to use, President Biden is leaving our homeland vulnerable and looking the other way as he wastes taxpayer dollars.”
“As he ignores Republican oversight to secure the border, we’re working to use these parts as intended. President Biden should finish the wall, not sell it,” she added.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) likewise told the outlet that it is “outrageous that the Biden administration continues to press on with these fire sales of border wall panels.”
“They should be put to use securing our border and protecting our homeland, not going to the scrap heap,” said Wicker. Senate Republicans sent a letter to the secretary of defense calling on the department to cease the sale of approximately $260 million worth of unused border wall.
This all comes as cities across America, most notably New York, are reeling from the effects of mass migration. In the Big Apple, migrants are now on the street as shelters are filled to capacity, despite the city even displacing homeless people in order to house the foreign arrivals.
New York Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, has become a critic of the federal government on the issue of mass migration, blaming the White House for not providing enough funds and for dragging its feet on securing work authorizations for the migrants. Adams has openly stated that border security should be part of the solution, saying, “Any plan that does not include stopping the flow at the border, that’s a failed plan.”
One Republican proposal to do just that is the “Finish It Act,” a bill proposed by Wicker and sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), that would bring back Trump-era border policies and complete construction of the wall by mandating that the federal government “use the construction materials to secure the southwest border as originally intended, or … transfer them to border states for that purpose.”
The Finish It Act was included in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which was passed with bipartisan support in the Senate back in July. Next week, when Congress is back from its recess, the Senate and House versions of NDAA will have to be reconciled before the final bill is sent for approval to Joe Biden’s desk.
Fox News further reported on the sales of border-wall materials:
It’s unclear who is buying the materials and where they are being stored, but in a previous statement to Fox News Digital this month, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) said it “is disposing of the excess border wall materials in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation.”
“USACE has already transferred approximately $154 million worth of the roughly $260 million of bollard panels and other materials in accordance with standard excess property disposition procedures. USACE stands ready to implement a decision regarding disposition of the remaining materials,” the statement reads.
The surge at the border has continued in recent weeks. On Tuesday alone, Border Patrol officials caught over 7,000 migrants. And last week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said they had 183,503 migrant encounters at the Mexican border in July.
While this number was lower than the same period last year, it was still a significant hike over June’s number of 144,566 encounters.
Now that multiple Democratic mayors, particularly Adams in New York but also Brandon Johnson of Chicago, have urged the federal government to facilitate more work permits, the Department of Homeland Security is set to launch a national campaign for work-eligible migrants to get employment authorization.
Per Fox News, the campaign will, in part, involve sending “emails and texts to migrants who have been paroled into the U.S. via the CBP One App and another parole program for certain nationalities, or who have pending asylum claims reminding them to apply for a work permit.”
But the administration is shying away from the most logical solution: Securing the border so the enormous migrant flow ends, and instantly deporting those who do arrive rather than flying them off to the interior of the country to become the problem of local communities.
As with many of the crises that have gripped the nation since Biden assumed office, the migrant crisis is entirely of the government’s own making.
To learn more about the immigration crisis and what can be done about it, click here.
