Mexican President: Biden Border Decision 'Pure Publicity'

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was dismissive of President Joe Biden's decision on Wednesday to proceed with construction of the border wall in South Texas.

"It's pure publicity," Lopez Obrador said Friday, according to the Washington Examiner. "They don't want to [build more sections of the barrier]. That's what they told us."

The Mexican leader's comments reportedly came one day after a visit by a delegation of U.S. Cabinet officials.

On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced that it waived 26 federal laws in south Texas to allow border wall construction in Starr County, a sector of the border that sees "high illegal entry."

Biden is caught between Democrat voters who see the border wall as an extension of former President Donald Trump and political pressure from Republicans and blue-city mayors desperate to curb the record-breaking numbers of migrants illegally entering the U.S. and their jurisdictions.

In an apparent attempt to placate his Democrat critics, the president told reporters Thursday that legal restrictions on the border wall allocation forced his hand.

"The border wall — the money was appropriated for the border wall," Biden said. "I tried to get [Congress] to reappropriate it, to redirect that money. They didn't. They wouldn't. And in the meantime, there's nothing under the law other than they have to use the money for what it was appropriated. I can't stop that."

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called the move "a profound betrayal," and progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., called on Biden to "take responsibility" for the decision and "reverse course."

"President Biden ran on the campaign promise of no bans, no wall," the ACLU posted on X, formerly Twitter. "Now, he's said yes to an extreme asylum ban and yes to expediting construction of a dangerous and ineffective border wall in Texas. It's a profound betrayal."

"The Biden administration was not required to expand construction of the border wall — and they certainly were not required to waive several environmental laws to expedite the building," Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement posted on X Thursday. "The President needs to take responsibility for this decision and reverse course."

According to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas' office, Border Patrol encountered more than 245,000 migrants attempting to illegally cross into the United States in the Rio Grande Valley Sector so far this fiscal year.

"There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries into the United States in the project areas," Mayorkas' office said in a notification published in the Federal Register Thursday.

During a meeting between U.S. and Mexican officials in Mexico City, Mayorkas sought to downplay the Federal Register notification, the Examiner reported.

"There is no new administration policy with respect to the border wall," he said. "From day one, this administration has made clear that a border wall is not the answer. That remains our position, and our position has never wavered. The language in the Federal Register notice is being taken out of context and it does not signify any change in policy whatsoever."

It was welcome reassurance for Mexican Foreign Secretary Alicia Bárcena.

"This is not an announcement of yet a new barrier, but it's part of their allotted budget and therefore they need to process, they need to execute," she said, according to the Examiner. "And I understand it will not be done through walls but through technology, but through other types of installations in order to detect and to build roads."

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