President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is vowing to close holes in the United States-Mexico border wall after halting all construction last year.
On Thursday, DHS announced that the agency will close four holes in the border wall in the Yuma, Arizona, sector — funded with money allocated by Congress for the construction projects.
The four holes in the border wall were left after former President Donald Trump’s administration constructed the barriers using funding from the Department of Defense (DOD). Last year, Biden returned those funds meant to complete the projects.
“Consistent with the DHS Border Wall Plan, prior to construction, DHS will engage in standard environmental planning and conduct stakeholder outreach and consultation,” a news release from the agency states. “DHS will move as expeditiously as possible, while still maintaining environmental stewardship.”
Parents-to-be from Haiti stand at a gap in the U.S.-Mexico border wall after having traveled from South America to the United States on December 10, 2021 in Yuma, Arizona. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Tennis shoes litter the ground at the US-Mexico border where a gap in the wall separates Algodones, Mexico, from Yuma, Arizona, on May 16, 2022. (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
In an aerial view, a immigrant family from Haiti walks towards a gap in the U.S. border wall from Mexico on December 11, 2021 in Yuma, Arizona. (John Moore/Getty Images)
A US Customs and Border Protection (CPB) officer meets with a migrant who already crossed into the US side near a gap in the border wall in Yuma, Arizona on May 16, 2022. (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
The closing of holes in the border wall comes after Biden, in 2020, vowed to end all border wall construction and did just that in January 2021 after taking office by executively halting construction.
“There will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration,” Biden said in August 2020, suggesting that construction of the wall was ineffective for stopping illegal immigration.
In March of 2021, Breitbart News exclusively reported that Biden had been spending about $6 million every day in taxpayer money to halt wall construction. By July, Biden had spent $2 billion to not build the wall, with costs amounting to about $3 million in taxpayer money wasted every day.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.