Today's Edition
US President Joe Biden on Thursday defended plans to extend the border wall with Mexico, saying he didn't think such barriers worked but that he was bound by laws introduced under Donald Trump.
Democrat Biden pledged during his White House race with Trump in 2020 that he would abandon the Republican's signature policy and would not build any more of the wall.
But his own Department of Homeland Security on Thursday announced the building of a new section in southern Texas to tackle an "acute and immediate need," as migrant crossings surge.
Biden, who is polling neck-and-neck with rival Trump ahead of a likely 2024 election rematch, insisted his predecessor had tied his hands on the wall-building.
"They have to use the money for what it was appropriated for. I can't stop that," he told reporters in the Oval Office.
He said the cash was earmarked for the border wall by the US Congress under Trump in 2019, and that lawmakers had since rejected his appeals to reassign the funds.
Asked if he thought the border wall was effective, Biden replied simply: "No."
'No choice'
The new section of wall will be built in the "high illegal entry" Rio Grande Valley sector of the US-Mexico border, where there have been more than 245,000 attempted illegal entries this fiscal year.
But Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas later said the announcement had been "taken out of context."
"The action that we took -- we had no choice," Mayorkas said during a news conference in Mexico with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
"There is no new administration policy with respect to the border wall."
Illegal immigration has become a major political headache for Biden, with opposition Republicans accusing him of lax border policies.
The border issue has even added to uncertainty over US aid for Ukraine, with some Republicans refusing to approve funds until Biden acts on migrants.
Meanwhile some Democrats including progressive lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized the wall decision. So did conservationists after it emerged that two dozen federal environmental laws would be waived to build the extension.
The White House said it was "absolutely false" that there had been a reversal by the president.
"We have to comply by law and that's what we're doing," Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
