Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas rejected the premise of a physical wall at the southern border on Wednesday, putting himself at odds with a recent Biden administration decision to restart wall construction.
Mayorkas responded with a blunt "no" when Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) asked him during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing Wednesday if walls were a part of the solution to illegal immigration, drug smuggling, and other crimes at the U.S.-Mexico border.
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"We don't need to manage the border," Britt said. "We actually need to secure it. So in doing that, this administration has kind of had different positions, and I want to clarify it. Do you believe that a border wall is part of the answer, yes or no?"
"No," Mayorkas said.
"OK, so I have trouble reconciling that with ... the rule that you signed and issued on Oct. 5, where you said construction of physical barriers on the border of the United States would in fact prevent unlawful entries," Britt rebutted.
In early October, the Biden administration walked back President Joe Biden's 2020 campaign promise that "there will not be another foot of wall constructed" along the border with an announcement that it would waive two dozen federal laws in order to erect a barrier in southeast Texas swiftly.
The Department of Homeland Security disclosed in the Federal Register plans to begin 10 projects to install tall slatted barriers and roads in about 20 miles of the Rio Grande Valley. This project was one of a number across the southern border where more than 300 miles worth of wall projects funded during the Trump administration were canceled by the Biden administration.
Unfinished projects funded by Congress during the Trump administration were required to be spent on border security measures, including technology, roads, infrastructure, or barriers. In this case, the DHS opted to use the money on the actual wall.
"The secretary of Homeland Security has determined, pursuant to law, that it is necessary to waive certain laws, regulations, and other legal requirements in order to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads in the vicinity of the international land border in Starr County, Texas," Mayorkas wrote.
Mayorkas described the Rio Grande Valley, where roughly 3,000 Border Patrol agents work, as a "high illegal entry" area. In the first 10 months of fiscal 2023, the Border Patrol apprehended more than 245,000 people who illegally entered the country through this area.
"Therefore, DHS will take immediate action to construct barriers and roads," Mayorkas wrote at the time.
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection previously told the Washington Examiner that it "will be using 18-foot steel bollard fence panels placed in removable concrete jersey barriers, as the steel bollard design remains the most operationally effective design and has been tested and evaluated over the last several years."
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Mayorkas defended the department's to build 20 miles of border wall in Texas and began to respond to Britt about a congressional mandate that DHS spend the funding, but he was interrupted when Britt said he could have asked Congress to take action about the unused funding.
"One more thing: This administration and your department, the Department of Homeland Security, issued a contract for a half a million dollars in September of 2021 for the purchase and installation of a wall around this president's beach house. So you all do know walls work. You do know they're part of the solution. You do know they're part of creating security, but for whatever reason, you feel like the American people are beneath that," Britt said. "That it is incredibly frustrating."