President Joe Biden’s double-speak on his new border wall is shocking even for his administration. For three years, Biden has substantively ignored a problem he created; now facing threatening politics, he is symbolically pretending to address it. In doing so, Biden is not governing the country but trying to thread the needle with his base — do just enough to not lose more of his dwindling support.
READ MORE: Joe Biden Builds That Wall
Last week news broke that the Biden administration was flip-flopping 180 degrees by resuming a wall started by President Donald Trump, despite campaigning that there would “not be another foot of wall constructed on [his] administration.” Now the Biden administration is planning to build another 20 miles of it. That’s a lot of feet.
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas stated, “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.” According to the Department of Homeland Security, there have been over 245,000 migrant encounters in the sector of the proposed new wall. Apparently, after almost three years in office — and after making Vice President Kamala Harris border czar in March 2021 — word of the border chaos has finally reached the White House.
Although Customs and Border Protection announced in June its plans to build the new 20-mile section, what is making it happen quickly is the waiving of 26 regulations pertaining to what the Guardian terms “environmental, public health and cultural protections”; that publication went on to say, “This is the first time a Democratic administration has issued such waivers for border wall construction.”
Yet even faster than the construction is now set to begin, the administration began undermining the border wall it is finally building. From the Oval Office, Biden was quoted as saying:
The money was appropriated for the border wall. I tried to get them to reappropriate, to redirect that money. They didn’t. They wouldn’t. In the meantime, there’s nothing under the law other than they have to use the money for what it was appropriated for. I can’t stop that.
Sticking the knife in deeper, the Hill reports, “Biden was asked whether he thought the border wall was effective and responded ‘no.’”
Close scrutiny reveals that the administration’s statements on its new border wall are as porous as the southern border has been on its watch. First, the money Biden claims he cannot stop was appropriated in fiscal year 2019. Fiscal year 2024 began on Oct. 1 — that’s five fiscal years ago. So why after five years are they finally moving ahead? Second, why could the administration not stop it? For two of these years, Democrats controlled the White House and Congress. Finally, why is the administration waiving the 26 “environmental, public health and cultural protections”? As the Guardian notes: “Environmental advocates have disputed the president’s claim that there was no choice but to move ahead with border wall construction. The administration was not obligated to waive environmental and public health protections to speed the work, they argue.”
What is obvious at first glance is that Biden is seeking to have it both ways. He is giving a symbolic 20 miles of wall to the majority of America while still maintaining the substance of doing little in hopes of continuing to appease his Left.
Twenty miles of border wall, regardless of how well placed or constructed, is not going to have a major impact across our sprawling land border with Mexico. It is a Band-Aid placed over a hemorrhage. But from his superficial gesture, Biden will seek to take great credit. For any drop from crisis levels, he will seek victory laurels. He did the same thing earlier this year when bragging about falling deficits following the COVID crisis.
What Biden’s new border wall really shows is that he has given up governing America for the sake of salvaging his dwindling base of support. The RealClearPolitics Oct. 10 average of national polls shows Biden with just a 40.4 percent approval rating and a 55.1 percent disapproval. Biden’s approval numbers today barely reach above the 37 percent of Americans who identified as Democrats in 2020 exit polling.
There is virtually nothing left of the Biden coalition but the Left. From this reality came his futile border gesture. Biden is aiming to do just enough to placate the increasingly vocal Democrat critics of his border abdication, such as New York City Mayor Eric Adams, New York state Gov. Kathy Hochul, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, and Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs. Said Hobbs recently, “Time and again, I’ve asked the Biden administration for assistance at the border, but instead, they have chosen to redirect resources to speed the release of migrants without the support and coordination our local communities deserve.”
So for his Democrat critics, Biden is moving to build them 20 miles of border wall. But the rest of the border — which he is not securing — is for the rest of his leftist base, who still see no problem in the border crisis.
When the southern border crisis was one of safety — especially for red states — Biden did nothing. Now that the southern border crisis has become one of politics — especially for blue states — Biden wants to appear to be doing something. He is willing for the border to remain open, but not for the election to be lost. So, now finally turning his attention to America’s southern border, Biden is symbolically doing something without really doing anything.
J.T. Young was a professional staffer in the House and Senate from 1987–2000, served in the Department of Treasury and Office of Management and Budget from 2001–2004, and was director of government relations for a Fortune 20 company from 2004–2023.
