Democrat President Joe Biden has performed a U-turn on building a border wall amid an overwhelming surge of illegal migrant crossings.
Up to 20 miles of barrier will be built in Starr County, Texas, the Biden admin has revealed.
The move comes despite campaign pledges from Biden not to erect another foot of wall along the border with Mexico.
Democrats had been fiercely critical of President Donald Trump’s use of executive powers to build a barrier on the Southern Border.
However, Biden is now using the same powers to try to staunch the flow of illegal aliens along a section of the frontier that has seen 245,000 illegal entries in the past year, according to official data.
Biden has waived 26 federal laws in Texas to permit the building of additional border barriers in the Rio Grande Valley.
The wall will be constructed using funds secured by Trump.
Biden finally caved on the issue following pressure from Department of Homeland (DHS) Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
“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 in the project areas,” Mayorkas said Wednesday.
Mayorkas’ sudden change of tune came after Republicans moved to slash his salary to $1.
As Slay News reported, a bipartisan bill passed in the U.S. House last week that seeks to slash Mayorkas’s pay.
The legislation saw Democrats join with Republicans for the vote.
The bipartisan Homeland Security appropriations bill seeks to hold Mayorkas and the DHS to account over Biden’s escalating illegal migrant crisis at the border.
The bill secured two Democrat votes from Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA).
The House used a tool called the Holman rule.
The rule allows lawmakers to alter an individual government employee’s salary.
The amendment to slash Mayorkas’s salary was introduced by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and passed unanimously.
The announcement comes as the Biden admin is facing a fresh surge in illegal immigration at the open Southern Border.
The surge is leading to record-high numbers at the border and intense political criticism from both Republicans and Democrats.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sources told Fox News last week there were more than 260,000 encounters in September, which would be the highest monthly total on record.
Republicans have blamed the historic numbers on the Biden admin’s policies, including its rollback of Trump-era policies and its halt to border wall construction.
The administration has also drawn criticism from Republicans for selling off border wall materials and for suing Texas over a border barrier it built in the Rio Grande.
The 45th president’s campaign celebrated the news in a statement.
“President Trump is always right,” the Trump campaign said.
“That’s why he built close to 500 miles of powerful new wall on the border, and it would have been finished by now.
“Instead, Crooked Joe Biden turned our country into one giant sanctuary for dangerous criminal aliens.”
READ MORE: New York Gov Deploys National Guard to ‘Give’Illegal Border Crossers ‘What They Want’
