Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Thursday that the Biden administration’s newly announced plan to construct a 20-mile section of wall along Texas’ southern border was “a setback because it does not resolve the problem” of migrants seeking refuge in the United States, The Associated Press reports.
López Obrador also said the announcement is “pure publicity” and urged the United States to address the “root causes” of migration, according to Reuters.
And the Mexican president is absolutely right. Even President Joe Biden admitted as much himself, reiterating a claim he made repeatedly during and after his 2020 campaign: Walls aren’t an effective immigration policy.
The White House claims Congress authorized the funds for wall construction during the Trump administration and has refused to rescind the authorization, which has forced the administration to follow through with the plan. But the Biden administration also suspended dozens of federal laws to facilitate the project, so its hands aren’t completely clean in its drift toward Trumpian cosplay.
Republicans often argue a wall is needed to stem an influx of drugs from Mexico, but immigration experts have noted for years that the majority of smuggling occurs at legal points of entry, not in remote portions of the desert.
On Thursday, liberals expressed frustration with the Biden administration for its apparent effort to pacify conservatives by fueling the GOP’s dubious border security claims.
Rep. Nanette Barragán, D-Calif., chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, called the announcement “disappointing.”
“While this border wall funding was signed into law by President Trump under Republican leadership, this decision is not in line with the current administration’s commitments to end border wall construction,” she said.
“A wall does nothing to deter people who are fleeing poverty and violence from coming to the United States,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said in a statement on social media. She called on Biden to "take responsibility" and reverse the decision.
"For years, we have fought against border walls because they are inhumane, don’t work, & divide our communities,” Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, posted to the platform X. “Republicans may have pushed for this funding in 2019, but President Biden did not have to take extra steps to make it easier to build a border wall in South Texas.”
Casar also urged Biden to “reverse this needless decision.”
Casar and Ocasio-Cortez are among many progressive voices in the House who want Congress to address the root causes of migration and not just fearmonger over migrant arrivals. Both have spoken about the need to address exploitative and destructive U.S. foreign policy decisions in Latin America — like crippling economic sanctions against Venezuela and the extraction of lithium in Chile — if lawmakers are serious about addressing the humanitarian crisis along the southern border.
And that’s a reality it seems few lawmakers outside the progressive caucus want to confront. To its great material benefit, the U.S. has propped up repressive regimes in Latin America, plied countries with weapons, and plundered parts of these countries in ways that encourage people to flee.
But rather than face the results of our foreign meddling head on and in a humane fashion, some Americans would rather build a wall instead.