Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration will fill gaps in certain areas of former President Donald Trump’s border wall on the U.S. southern border as the illegal immigration crisis hits Washington, D.C., following a decision by Republican governors to transport thousands of illegal aliens to the nation’s capital.
The Associated Press noted that Biden “pledged during his campaign to cease all future wall construction,” but that his administration has now agreed to some additional barriers.
Controversial Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas authorized the project that will close four massive gaps in the border wall near Yuma, Arizona, which has been decimated by Biden’s border crisis.
The report suggested that part of the reason that Biden might have made closing those specific gaps a “priority” is because vulnerable Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) is up for re-election and the current political winds could make it very difficult for him to hold onto his seat.
The development comes after Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott effectively told Washington, D.C., Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser to pound sand Thursday afternoon after she complained that the border state was flooding her city with illegal aliens.
“With pledges from Texas and Arizona to continue these abhorrent operations indefinitely, the situation is dire, and we consider this a humanitarian crisis — one that could overwhelm our social support network without immediate and sustained federal intervention,” Bowser wrote in requesting help from the National Guard.
“We’ve had a number of discussions,” she said. “We’ve facilitated FEMA’s involvement with a million dollar grant that has now been increased to work with a lead nonprofit agency. We’ve facilitated using those grant funds to set up respite center in a neighboring jurisdiction and I’ve also asked the Secretary of the Army to deploy the D.C. National Guard to help lead that effort.”
Abbott responded on Twitter, writing: “D.C. is experiencing a fraction of the disastrous impact the border crisis has caused Texas.”
“Mayor Bowser should stop attacking Texas for securing the border & demand Joe Biden do his job,” Abbott added.
Bowser said in her letter that she expects the “crisis” in D.C., a term that Democrats have resisted using when talking about Biden’s border crisis, “to escalate.” “The number of people crossing the border seeking asylum, we expect to only go up, we need to make sure that there is a national response, not an ad hoc city by city, state by state response,” she continued.
Abbott spokeswoman Renae Eze told the Washington Examiner that the nation’s capital, which is overwhelmingly deep blue, “finally understands what Texans have been dealing with every single day, as our communities are overrun and overwhelmed by thousands of illegal immigrants thanks to President Biden’s open border policies.”
Over the past three months, more than 150 buses have reportedly transported over 4,000 migrants to D.C. from Arizona and Texas.
This report has been updated to include additional information.