The United States orders to reinforce border wall in Texas

2023-10-05 07:00:53

The United States Government has ordered to “immediately” reinforce the border wall with Mexico in one of the areas where irregular migrant crossings have been recorded the most, according to a document published this Wednesday.

The construction work, which will be carried out in several areas of the Rio Grande Valley, will include the construction of both physical barriers and roads to “prevent the irregular entry” of migrants into US territorydetails the writing, which will be officially published this Thursday in the federal registry.

This border area, southeast of Texas, is the second area where the most detentions of migrants have been recorded in recent months, according to data from the Customs and Border Control Office (CBP).

The document itself indicates that between October 2022 and August of this year, US authorities have detained more than 245,000 people trying to cross the border with Mexico in this area.

To carry out construction workwhich will take place in Starr County, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will exempt compliance with more than twenty laws, including regulations related to environmental protections, public health and cultural conservation.

This decision was criticized by the environmental advocacy organization Center for Biological Diversity, which stated that this is the first time that the Democratic government has used its authority to bypass laws of this type.

“It is disheartening to see President (Joe) Biden stoop to this level, setting aside our nation’s fundamental environmental laws to build border walls that destroy wildlife,” Laiken Jordahl, one of the organization’s spokespersons, said in a statement.

The announcement by the Biden Government comes days after it was learned that arrests of migrants attempting to irregularly cross the southern border increased by 36% in August, with more than 181,059 arrests.

Specifically, 26% of these arrests occurred in the Rio Grande Valley sector, according to CBP data analyzed by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).

This increase occurs despite the imposition of measures more restrictive to the movement of people on the southern border by the Democratic government last May, which limit access to asylum in the United States.