Mayorkas finally admits 'immediate need' to build border wall amid surge in illegal immigration

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has opted to waive a litany of laws and regulations to swiftly construct more border wall in a key Texas hotspot for illegal crossings.

"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," reads a notice posted to the U.S. Federal Registry that Fox News obtained.

Citing the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, Mayorkas noted that "Congress granted to the Secretary of Homeland Security the authority to waive all legal requirements that I, in my sole discretion, determine necessary to ensure the expeditious construction of barriers and roads authorized by [the act]."

In total, Mayorkas plans to waive a total of 26 federal laws to expedite construction. The notice further highlighted the 245,000 migrant encounters that occurred over the past year in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, which includes Starr County. Since President Joe Biden took office, law enforcement has encountered more than 7 million people illegally entering the country.

In light of the surge in illegal immigration, Mayorkas found that there exists 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."

Former President Donald Trump reached the White House in 2016 campaigning heavily on a promise to construct a border wall, though the Biden administration terminated plans for continued construction when he took office in 2021. 

The former president's campaign team took Mayorkas's decision as a vindication, telling Fox News that "President Trump is always right. That’s why he built close to 500 miles of powerful new wall on the border and it would have been finished by now. Instead, Crooked Joe Biden turned our country into one giant sanctuary for dangerous criminal aliens."

President Joe Biden currently has a 33.6% approval rating on immigration, according to RealClearPolitics. A further 62.8% disapprove of his handling of the issue.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.