Well over a year and a half into President Joe Biden’s term, there’s still been no action on border security. Now, frustration is boiling over. After 18 months of worsening security, Arizona got fed up waiting for the administration to do something and is taking action itself.
On August 12, advisers to Governor Doug Ducey (R) told reporters that workers had just begun finishing sections of the Trump-era border wall left incomplete by the Biden Administration. A border security barrier was one of former President Donald Trump’s key election pledges, and during his four years in office, around 460 miles of new wall were built.
Biden immediately canceled the work when he took office. As the illegal immigration crisis worsened, he started to waver, and in December, he announced plans to plug four gaps in Arizona’s barricade — but, months later, nothing has been done.
On top of the administration’s inaction on building, Biden recently announced the end of Trump’s Remain in Mexico program. That was enough to push Arizona into action. Ducey authorized workers to build barriers out of shipping containers to fill the gaps around Yuma. The work, which should cost $6 million, is due to be finished by next week — a fraction of the time Biden has been dawdling. Will the government’s failure to act push more states into building their own walls?
