Apr 30, 2021 - Politics & Policy

DHS to address damage caused by border wall construction

Ursula Perano

A portion of border wall in New Mexico. Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

The Department of Homeland Security announced Friday it will begin repairing a broken flood barrier in Texas and a strip of eroding soil in California — issues that resulted from border wall construction in the respective areas.

The big picture: DHS said in a news release that the repairs were prompted by a "review the extensive problems created by the prior administration’s border wall construction" and are meant to "protect border communities from physical dangers..."

President Biden has already paused all border wall construction and ended former President Trump's redirection of funds toward the project.

Per DHS, construction in Texas "blew large holes into the Rio Grande Valley’s flood barrier system to make way for a border wall." When wall construction stopped, the holes were left behind, putting the area at risk of "catastrophic flooding."

And in California, construction caused "dangerous [soil] erosion along a 14-mile stretch in San Diego," DHS notes.

What they're saying: "The Biden Administration inherited a broken immigration system – one that wasted billions of taxpayer dollars and neither kept the American people safe nor adhered to our values," a senior administration official said.

"Wall construction along the southern border in recent years is just one example of the prior Administration’s misplaced priorities and failure to manage migration in a safe, orderly, and humane way."

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DHS to address damage caused by border wall construction

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